340 
B4U5I 




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Class t- y/ 



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56TII CoxtiREss, 1 SENATE. ( Ddcimext 

Jul Sc&iioH. I I, No. 4o(i. 



PROCEEDINGS I\ CONGRESS 



rPON TlIK 



ACCEPTANCE OF THE STATUES 



,\S II, mm iMi FIIWCIS I'. BLAIR 



PRESENTED HV 



THE STATK OF MISSOURI 



WASHINGTON": 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
I 900. 



/?^- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

RECEIVED 

AUG C;i90l 

DIVISION OF DOCUMENTS. 



COXCrRRKXT RESOLUTION. 

J\i'so/z'fd by the Senate [the House of Representatives eoncnr- 
ring ) , That there lie printed and bound of the proceedings in 
Congress upon the acceptance of the statues of the late Thomas 
H. Benton and Francis P. Blair, presented by the State of Mis- 
souri, sixteen thousand five hundred copies, of which five thou- 
sand .shall be for the use of the Senate, ten thousand for the use 
of the House of Representatives, and the remaining one thousand 
five hundred shall be for the use and distribution l)y the Gov- 
ernor of Missouri; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby 
directed to have printed an engraving of said statues to accom- 
pany said jiroceedings, said engravings to be paid for out of the 
appropriation for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. 

Passed the Senate Ma>' 31, 1900. 

Passed the House June 6, 1900. 




"^ * x*^ V W^ 



j.ia Ji*iiJ.rw.i3 




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j3iiiia,sviaiLa»j>»* i ■i'a^'i"*''*^ 



CONTENTS. 



I'agc. 

J'roaYiiiiiiiS ill tlic Ihuiic of Rfprcicnlalii't's 5 

Address of Mr. DocKERV, of Mi.ssouri 7 

Ci..\RK, of Missouri . 16 

Llovd, of Missouri 53 

I'rocft'di iig s ill the Stiiatc 73 

Address of Mr. \'E.sT, of Missouri 75 

CoCKRELi,, of Missouri y6 

Ho.\R, of Massachu.setts. . 129 

Elkin's, of We.st Virginia r ;.S 

3 



ACCI-rTANCI-: OF THK STATUES ol" THOMAS 
BENTON AND FRANCIS P. HE AIR. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE 



JANUARY i8, 1899. 

Mr. Bl.vxd. Mr. Speaker, I desire to ask unaiiiiiions consent 
for the present consideration of the resolution which I send to 
the Clerk's desk. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Ri'solrcd, That the exerci.se.s appropriate- to the reception and acceptance 
from the State of Missouri of the statues of Thom.^s II. Hicxto.n and 
Fr.\n-cis p. BL-\ir, erected in the old Hall of the Hou.se of Representa- 
tives be made the special order for .Saturdav, February 4, at ^ o'clock 
p. ni. 

The vSpE.MCEK. Is there objection to the i)resent considera- 
tion of the resolntion? [After a patise.] The Chair hears 
none. 

The question was taken: and the resolution was ajjreed to. 

FEBRUARY 4, 1899. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will read the .special order. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

A'cso/ivd. That the exerci.scs appropriate to the reception and accept- 
ance from the State of Missouri of the statues of Tho.m.\s H. Bk.vTox and 
Fr.vnciS p. Bl.^ir. erected in the old Hall of the House of Represent- 
atives, be made the special order for Saturday, February 4, at 3 o'ck)ck 

p. m. 

Mr. Bl.V.nd. Mr. Speaker, I will ask the Clerk to read the 
following letter from the executive of the State of Mi.s.soiui. 

5 



6 Proceciiiiigs of tlw House on tlie Acccptancr of tlic 

The Clerk read as tDllows: 

To tlu- Si-iiali- ami Hon-sr of kcpirsoilatii'cs nf llir I'nttcd Slates. Wash- 
higloii , / '. C. 

Gentlemen: In tlic year iSg^ the general asseinljlv of the State of 
ilissouri passed an act making an appropriation to have statues made of 
Thomas H. Benton and Francis P. Bi.air, to be placed in Statuary 
Hall, in the Capitol, at Washington. In the act referred to, William J. 
Stone, Odin Guitar. Peter L. Foy, B. B. Cahoon, O. H. Spencer, and James 
H. Birch were constituted a commission to have the statues made ami 
properly placed. I am now informed b\- the commissioners that the 
statues are completed and read}- to be presented to Congress. 

I have the honor, therefore, as governor of Missouri, to present to the 
Government of the United States, through the Congress, the statues of the 
distinguished statesmen natued and to ask that they may be assigned a 
place in the hall dedicated to such uses at the Capitol. 
Very respectfully, 

LoN \'. STEi'HtCNS, iiovcnior. 

Mr. Blaxi). Mr. Speaker. I offer the following re.sokuioii. 
The Spe.akek. The gentleman from Missouri offers the fol- 
lowing resolution, which will he read liy the Clerk. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

A'esolved by the House of J\epresei!tali~ces ( the Senate eo/ieiirn/i« ] , That 
the thanks of Congress be presented to the State of Jlissouri for providing 
and furnishing .statues of Thom.^s H.art Benton, a deceased person, who 
has been a citizen thereof and illustrious for his historic renown and for 
distinguisheil civic services, and of Fr.-v.n"CIS Preston Bi..\ir, a deceased 
person, who has been a citizen thereof, and illustrious for his historic 
renown and for distinguished civic and military services. 

k'esolied, That the .statues be accepted and placed in the National Stat- 
uary Hall in the Capitol, and that a copy of tliese resolutions duly authen- 
ticated be transmitted to the governor of the State of Missouri. 

Mr. Blaxd. Mr. Speaker, there are .some gentlemen present, 
and others absent, who wish to print remarks in the Record on 
the stibject of the resolntion, and I therefore ask luianimons 
consent of the Hon.se that they have leave to do .so. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Mis.sonri asks iniani- 
moits consent that members may be allowed to print in the 
Record remarks on the siil)ject of the resolntion. Is there 
objection ;■' [After a patise.] The Chair hears none. 



Statues of Tliomas If. Benton and l-'raneis F. Blair. 7 



ADDRESS OF MR. DOCKERY, OF MISSOURI 
Mr. Speaker, Congress having by the act of July 2, 1S64, 
invited each of the States to present statues, not exceeding two 
in number, in marble or bronze, of deceased persons who have 
been tlistinguished citizens, and who, on account of civil or 
military services, are deemed worthy of national commemora- 
tion in Statuary Hall in the National Capitol, the State of Mis- 
souri, in the fullness of time, has availed herself of the invita- 
tion, and has presented the two marble statues which we 
to-day formally accept on behalf of the Federal Government. 

Various other States of the Union have already presented, 
from time to time, statues of their distinguished departed sons: 
\'irginia, one, of George Washington; Massachusetts, two, of 
Samuel Adams and John Winthrop; Coiniecticut, of Roger 
Sherman and Jonathan Trumbull; Rhode Island, of Xathanael 
Greene and Roger Williams; \'ermont, of Ethan Allen and 
Jacob Collamer; New Hampshire, of Daniel Webster and John 
Stark; Maine, of William King: New York, of George Clinton 
and Robert R. I,i\-ingston; Pennsylvania, of John P. G. Muhlen- 
berg and Roloert Fulton; New Jersey, of Richard Stockton and 
Philip Kearny; Ohio, of James A. Garfield and William Allen; 
Illinois, of James vShields; Michigan, of Lewis Cass, and Wis- 
consin, of Pere James Marquette. 

By the act of the legislature of Mi.ssouri, approved April 8, 
1S95, a fund \Tas appropriated and a connni.ssion con.stituled, 
comprising Governor William J. Stone, chairman: Peter L. P'oy, 
esq., of the city of St. Louis: Gen. Odon Guitar, of Boone 
County; Judge O. M. Spencer, of Buchanan; Hon. B. B. Cahoon, 
of St. Francois, and Col. James H. Birch, of Clinton, who were 
directed to have executed statues of Thomas H. Benton and 



8 Address of Air. Dockcry on tlic Acceptance of the 

Francis P. Blair. That commission discharged their func- 
tions with care and complete success, and under their pains- 
taking supervision models were selected and the sculptures 
executed in marble by the artist, Mr. Alexander Dojde, of New 
York City. 

Wr. Speaker, it is with special pride that Missouri contributes 
to our national pantheon these memorials of two of her most 
illustrious sons, Benton and Blair. Their names and their 
deeds not only have wrought especial blessing and reflected 
lasting renown upon their own imperial Commonwealth, Imt 
they are the heritage of the whole country as well ; and as such 
their marble images worthily find a place in yonder hall, side 
b\' side with tho.se of others of the nation's noblest children — 
pioneers, warriors, statesmen, inventors, benefactors — heroes all. 

Both Benton and Bl.^ir rendered most distinguished service 
in the National Legislature — Benton for five terms in the 
Senate and one term in the House, and Blair for parts of four 
terms in the Hou.se and part of a term in the Senate; so that 
with pectiliar fitness their sculptured images will .stand yonder 
and be viewed b}- generations to come, hard by the scenes of 
their legislative .struggles and triumphs. 

In Bi:xtun we behold the mightiest son of the early West — 
the most colossal figure in the march of trans-Mi.ssis.sippi de- 
velopment, striding onward head and .shoulders above all his 
contemporaries. It was not my good fortune to lia\-e known 
him, or my privilege ever to have seen him; Ijut his grand, 
manly character, his splendid achievements in public life, and 
his princely qualities as a private citizen, as I have learned 
them from the lips of others and as I find them chronicled in 
our history, command my unstinted admiration. Himself a 
pioneer, I take him to have been the recognized exponent of 
the great pioneer cla.ss, hardy, enterprising, irresistible; the 



S/(j//trs of Tliomas 11. Bcii/oii and rrainis P. Blair. 9 

ablest expounder of their views, and the most typical repre- 
sentative of their aspirations. In his day and generation he 
was the greatest champion of the West and its interests, and 
the most zealous advocate of e\'er>- movement for the extension 
of the western boundaries of the Republic, beholding with 
clearer vision than most of his fellows, through the mist of 
coming j'ears, something of the later grandeur and glorj- which 
the nation has attained. 

And yet, de.spite the strength of his local and sectional 
predi.spositious, his aggressive patriotism was national and all- 
embracing; the love of his great heart comprehended alike 
the North, the South, the East, and the West. He gloried in 
the American Union, and his mar\-elous endowments were 
always freely offered to the service of his whole country. His 
teachings, iu their effect upon the people of his own State, 
did perhaps as much as any other agency to keep Mis.souri 
still within the sisterhood of the Union when her Southern 
neigh tors left it: they formed the groundwork upon which 
Bl.\ir afterwards so brilliantly operated to hold the State fast 
to her old moorings. 

There were giants in those days, and Benton was one of 
them, towering amid the greatest of his colleagues — Webster, 
Cla}-, and Calhoun. When it is remembered that, from the 
time of Monroe down to the time of Buchanan, he exercised a 
controlling swa\' over Western politics such as few statesmen 
ever did, it is not surprising that he should have left behind 
him such ineffaceable and monumental marks of his greatness. 
During his service in the Senate that body was admittedly 
the most influential legislative body in the world. The nation's 
greatest political chiefs were members pf it; and in it, from the 
time of Jack.son, Benton .stood forth continuously a connnand- 
iug figure and the most eminent representative of Jacksonian 
Democracv. 



lo Address of Air. Dockcry on tJie Acceptance of the 

The Republic has never produced a statesman more vahantly 
loyal and true to his convictions than Bentox. His faculties 
always responded to the call of a great emergency. His metal 
on such an occasion always rang true and clear. He grew 
.steadily wiser as he proceeded in his career. With his develop- 
ing maturity he became better equipped for the performance of 
yeoman service to the public, and it has been .said of him that, 
during the last period of his life — the heroic period — he ren- 
dered greater .service to the nation than any of his fellow 
Senators. 

In addition to his herculean achievements in statecraft, his 
attaiiunents in other directions attested his amazing industry, 
versatility, and liberal culture. Daniel Webster once remarked 
tliat BexTox knew more political facts than any other man he 
ever met, and pos.sessed a wonderful fund of general knowledge. 
He not only left his powerful impress upon the events in which 
he was an actor during his thirty-two years' service in Con- 
gress, but he left to posterity two veritaljle monuments attesting 
his ceaseless acti\-ity and study — his two great literary produc- 
tions, the " Thirty Years' View" and his "Abridgment of the 
Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1S50" — both of them acknowl- 
edged to be indispensable to the student of American political 
and governmental history. 

Mo.st happily has the sculptor modeled forth his physical 
lineaments and suggested the qualities that characterized the 
man. From a study of the artist's handiwork we can the 
better understand what good .sturdy .stuff Benton was made 
of — his magnificent physique, his tirele.ss energy, his masterful 
intellect, his indomitable will. From a contemplation of that 
marble figure we can fancy his aggressive courage, his .stern 
sincerity, his earnestness, tenacity, and uprightness; we can 
picture in our minds what a proud, resolute, fearless, self- 
reliant hero he must have been in life, and we can join in 



Sfatucs of Thomas H. Benton and Francis /'. lUair. i i 

huml)l\' iloint; him lionor for llic iinineasurahlc s^ood he 
wrought for his country in his own generation and for all 
the generations after him. 

Mr. Siieaker, in a nio.st remarkable way the life work of 
Benton and of Bl.vik merged together, to the incalculable 
benefit of our common State; the achievements of the younger 
of the two linked themselves with and supplemented those of 
the elder. When Benton died, in KS5S, the tide of Southern 
sentiment was rising like a flood, and but for the li\'ing intln- 
ence of the veteran statesman, then still in death, Missotu'i 
would probably have been overwhelmed by that tide. And 
notwith.standing that potent influence, it would yet have been 
overwhelmed had not Blair, courageous and preternaturally 
energetic, inter\-ened at the right moment, and with the sagacity 
of genius, to direct and utilize that influence. His lofty patriot- 
ism, spirit, and capacity saved the State to the Union and left 
her free at the close of the civil .strife to march onward without 
interruption in the paths of progress. 

To have accomplished this was in itself an extraordinary 
achievement for any man. But Bl.vik rested not there. He 
plunged with knightly ardor into the Titanic stru,g.gle then 
be.ginning, and ere long became a major-general of volunteers 
and a corps connnander of hi.gh efficiency. He was the most 
illustrious soldier that Missouri gave to the I'liion; indeetl, 
he was regarded as one of the most .successful of .all the chiefs 
of the volunteer army. 

Meanwhile he served also with distinction in Congress; and 
in the Thirty-seventh Congress, as chairman of the Hou.se Com- 
mittee on Military Affairs, he reported and pressed those essen- 
tial measures that equipped and maintained the Union armies 
in the field. 

He was a hero in council, in the camp, and on the field of 
battle. And after the war, voluntarily renouncing the grateful 



12 Address of Mr. Dock fry on the Accvplaiicc of the 

political rewards that wmild ha\-e freely come to him from his 
own political party, he devoted his energies to the heroic and 
magnaiiinious but unpopular task of protecting his late enemies 
from injustice at the hands of his own triumphant and intol- 
erant partisans. In that work of self-alinegation, viewed calmly 
after this lapse of time, the moral grandeur of the hero shines 
forth with dazzling luster. A hero in the trilnilations of war, 
he liecame ten times a hero in the tribulations of returning 
peace. In the face of frenzied calunnn-, furious partisanship, 
and mob violence, his manly heart demanded justice for his 
beaten foes; and with undaunted personal coura.ge, with cool- 
ness and braver^' almost unexampled, he espou,sed the cause of 
the weak, the disfranchised, the tax ridden, and the downtrod- 
den, and .sought by practical means to bind up and heal the 
wounds of the recent strife. 

Like others of the proscribed class who witnessed liis intrepid 
conduct in behalf of my oppressed people on the most trying 
occasions, I may say that, in adding this hnml)le tribute to his 
fame, it is not prompted by a mere formal or prefunctory im- 
pulse, liut by a .sentiment of sincere personal affection. The 
political and civic honors that would have come to him innne- 
diately following the war, but which he denied to himself, and 
the later political succe.ss which he would doubtless have 
attained had his life been spared, are more than corapen.sated 
by the fervent love which all the people of Missouri cherish for 
his memor\-. [Loud applause.] 

Mr. Speaker, I desire to append to my remarks and to incor- 
porate in the Record a beautiful tribute to the memory of 
Benton and Bi,.\ik, written b>- Hon. J. H. Birch, of Platts- 
burg. Mo., one of the vState commissioners, and transmitted to 
me for that purpose. It reads: 

It is deemed proper that the only native-born Mi.ssourian on the com- 
mission, who knew both of these di.stinguished citizens during their lives, 
should be heard on this interesting occasion. I shall speak, therefore, 



Sla/itcs 0/ Tlionias H. Boilon and Francis P. Blair. 13 

from personal kiiowlerlgc. Sixty years a>;i> Colonel UiiNToN ami mv 
father were frieniily assoeiates. 0.ur home, in tlu' villat;e where we lived, 
was occasionally honored by his visits. Sitting and listening to his con- 
versation, I wondered that I was permitted to exist in such a presence. 
In after years, when grown to manhood, and bitter personal enmitv had 
arisen between them, I recognized the fact that Haneton — for it was thus 
he pronounced his name — was the mo.st powerfid ])olilicaI factor in the 
great West. 

Xo one favored him in appearance, manners, or personal characteris- 
tics, and but few ever reached his level in intellectual power, information, 
or influence. His was an isolated personality. He had but few, if any. 
confidants. He recognized but two conditions in public life between 
men leadership and followers. He knew his own fitness to rule, and 
demanded that others obey. He sought no advice, and permitted no 
dissent; and criticism of his political infallibility resulted in personal 
an<l political ostraci.sm. If he ever forgot or forgave an inteiuled injury, 
only his Creator knew it. If he ever had an emotion in connection with 
his ambition, it was kept as hidden as the thoughts of a Hindoo's god. 
Had he lived in the days of the Cajsars, there would have been another 
Urutus. Had he commanded the Roman armies when Palmyra fell, he 
might have spared Zenobia in recognition of her great prowess an<l char- 
acter, but she would never have been carried through the streets of 
Rome attached to his triumphal car, for in such a pageantry Buxton 
deemed the presence of no one necessary — if Ben'Ton was there. 

His courage was equal to every emergency, and w.is always under the 
most perfect control; but it was as cold and as itierciless as the heart of a 
matadore. In its use he made but one mistake, when by it he forced his 
enemies to conspire to kill him, that they might live. To accom])lish his 
political destruction they contrived to have pas.sed through tl;e general 
assembly of Missouri during the winter of 184S-49 the celebrated Jackson 
resolutions, instructing him how to vote on the great (jne.stion of that day 
then pending in the Senate— the resolutions of Mr. Calhoun, They knew 
he wimld not obey them, because, first, of the disunion doctrine contained 
in them, and, second, of personal resentitient at the audacity of attempt- 
ing to instruct BkxTox on such a subject. 

As was expected, Buxton defied the general as.semhly of .Missouri, 
charging it with misrepresenting the people of the State; and, issuing 
his appeal to the people, came home in May, i.S4g, and o])ened a cam- 
paign in person, which never closed until he was defeateil for gfTvernor in 
1S56. Although (juite 75 years of age, yet he canvassed Hk? State until 
election day in a carriage, making speeches every day. 4? he ever suffered 
mental anguish at the waning of his political fortunes, he hid it beneath 
that iron face with the stoicism of a martyr. (iinV-is he was, he carried 
with him on the .stump that imperial presence which, in his yoimgerdays, 
had awed multitudes into silence, and neither discomfort nor pain Imiught 
compl.'iint from his lips. 



14 Address of Mr. Dockcry on the Acceptance nf /he 

If anybody doubts the accuracy of the pholoi;raph thus drawn, let him 
look at that statue. The sculptor, as if by inspiration, caught the secret 
force of his individuality and drew it in its strongest lines, representing 
him in the strength of his matured manhood, at the zenith of his political 
power, and clothing him with that air of arrogance which, like the waves 
of the sea breaking upon the rock -bound shore, forbade the approach of 
those who sought to cower at his feet. 

Had the sculptor failed in this respect, the spirit of BenTox would have 
haunted him forever; for it can be said of BknTON that 'his life was as 
devoid of hypocrisy and of pretense as it was of love-making to gain ])opu- 
lar favor. Like Cromwell, his wish was to be painted as he was— to be 
seen and known among men as a man of indomitable will, of great force 
of character, with a steady and strong purpose in life, guided by a lirain 
and aided b)- an intellect which enabled him to scale the highest peaks in 
the great range of human possibilities. 

During the last years of his life, secluded from the world, he took the 
most ample revenge upon his enemies, for he left behind him the greatest 
political history of the century, his Thirty Years' View. 

And now, nearly fifty years after the people of Missouri had driven him 
from his seat in the highest councils of the nation, which for thirty years 
he had adorned with his great character, with fidelity to his State and his 
country, they order, without a single dissenting voice, that his name and 
his memory be forever perpetuated in marble, in the Capitol of his coun- 
try, in the very building where he won his emluring fame. 

Gen. Fran'CIS Preston Bi..\ir, who is associated with Colonel Benton 
in this memorial dedication, was his great friend and youthful associate. 
At his feet he learned those lessons which guided his political conduct in 
after life. In personal characteristics, action, and manners they were as 
different as they were in appearance. I knew General Bl..\lR well. He 
was my elder, but our ages enabled us to fraternize with ease. In earlj- 
life, he being a follower of Benton, we naturally separated; but, as the 
years advanced, the great political controversies which overwhelmed the 
country brought us close together, and, becoming the warmest of friends, 
our lines of life ran close together. 

We were comrades during the war with Mexico, He was a private and 
I was a corporal . We were comrades during the " war between the States. ' ' 
He was a major-general and I a .simple colonel. In the great political 
struggle which swept over Missouri in 1S70— the sole issue being the reen- 
franchisement of the people, and which led to the overthrow of the Repub- 
licans in the State — we were comrades again, and that winter found us 
both members of the general assembly of Missouri. 

In the Senatorial caucus which followed a rao.st exciting and bitterly- 
contested ballot, I moved and carried the proposition to make his nomina- 
tion unanimous. Before the vote v. as counted and annomiced, and in the 
joint session of the two houses, my name coming first on the senate roll, 
I had the honor of casting the first vote for him for United States Senator. 

By a singular coincidence, being in Jefferson City three years ago, the 



Staines of Tliomas If. luiiton and Prancis /\ Blair. 15 

(Uslinguished chairman of the Comniillee on Ways and Means, now rep- 
resenting his country as consul-general at Montreal, honored me with the 
request that I draft the bill which he introduced and passed through the 
general assembly, and under the connnands whereof these statues were 
executed. Being named as one of the commissioners, I am proud of tlie 
privilege which enables me thus to garland Hi.air's statue with a wreath, 
which at least is embalmed with the perfume of personal friendship. 

General Bl.^.ir needs no eulogy. That statue is the emboiliment of the 
will of the people of Missouri, and is the most perfect representation of 
a man I ever saw in marble. He was a Cceur de Lijon in courage and 
knightlv manner. No one in his presence ever acknowledged a wrong 
done him but it was accepted with a princely graciousncss that instantly 
dis.solved the .self-abasement that was in the act. His courage was part of 
his soul, and, filling his body, came at his call like an electric spirit, borne 
on the great blood-waves of his heart; and the necessity for its use having 
passed, it went back with his blood, leaving no rankling thorns behim!. 

Such a spirit naturally drew around him as bold and as determined a 
following as ever marched beneath a highland banner, and, as a conse- 
quence, a host of enemies ecjually bold and resolute; and as a result, the 
political battlefields of Missouri after the war rivaled in many respects, 
except the clash of arms, the real battlefields which preceded them. 
Bl.^ir was the master-spirit in those campaigns, and victory came as the 
result of his leadership. Yet so bravely did he lead that the fierce .spirit 
of personal antagonism passed away with the settlement of the (juestion. 
His selection for the honors of this day was equally unanimous with 
Benton's. 

It was not in consequence of the absence of great men in Missouri 
that Bl.\ir was thus honored. There has been no time when her voice 
has been silent during the progress of the great controversies which have 
arisen since her admission into the I'nion. There sleep within her 
borders manv men who had but few peers, whether on the battlcficlil 
or in the halls of Con.gress, any one of whom Missouri would proudly 
honor; but it was the life and later services of Bl.\ir which evoked such 
a combination of public sentiment that all other claims were merged 
in his; and to-day Jlissouri presents the statues of tw^o of her citizens 
who laid down the duties of this life only in obedience to the bugle call 
from the other shore. 

It was a grand and patriotic conception which le<l to the dedication of 
that Hall as the pantheon of so many American heroes. It h.ad been 
hallowed by the presence of the great spirits who cemented the founda- 
tions of American liberty, and it is proper that the unborn generations 
who shall tread its sacred floor may read the history of the past in the 
silent statues gathered 'there. No other spot would have been so apjm)- 
priate, and no less a tribute to its historic memories woulil have been 
proper. 

And now we leave these statues there, to renuiin forever, sheltered by 
that historic roof, and protected by that flag which has grown to be the 
emblem of the power of the greatest people of the earth. 



i6 .-{(Mrtss nf Mr. Clark 01/ tlie Acceptance of the 



Address of Mr, Clark, of Missouri. 

Mr. Speaker, when Governor B. Gratz Brown, one of tlie 
most brilliant of all Missouri statesmen, on a historic occasion 
said, " Mis.sonri is a grand State and deserves to be grandly 
governed," he uttered an immortal truth. He might lia\'e 
added with equal \-eracity, "She deser\-es to Ije .grandlv repre- 
sented in the Congress of the United States, ' ' and she has been 
in the main, particularly in the Senate, where paucity of mem- 
bers and length of tenure more .surely fix a man in the public 
eye than .service in the House. 

First and last, Missouri has commissioned twenty-one differ- 
ent men to represent her at the other end of the Capitol, in 
the less numerous branch of the National Legislature, in the 
Chamljer of the Conscript Fathers, in ' ' the Upper House of 
Congress," improperly so called; or, as vSenator Morgan, of 
Alabama, would have it, "Ambassadors of a ,sovereigu State" 
to the Federal Government. Beginning with David Barton and 
Thomas Hart Bexton, her pioneer Senators, who at once 
attracted general attention and challenged tuiiversal admiration 
by reason of their commanding talents, down to this very hour, 
when in the persons of Francis Marion Cockrell and George 
Graham Vest .she holds .sticli an envialile jwsition in that con- 
spicuous arena, Missouri has taken sect)nd place to none of her 
sister States. , 

These twenty-one Senators nattirally divide them.selves into 
two classes — the Barton line and the Bp:xton line, fifteen in 
the former and onl\- six in the latter. 

In the Barton line are Barton him.self, Alexander Buckner, 
Lewis F. Linn, David R. Atchison, James S. Green, Waldo P. 
Johnson, Robert Wilson, B. Gratz Brown, Charles D. Drake, 



Statues of Tlioiiias I J. Ihiitoii and Francis /'. Blair. \-j 

Daniel T. Jewett, Fraxcis P. Ulaik, Lewis \'. Ho.«,'y, David H. 
Armstrong, James Shields, and (icorge O. \'esl. 

In the Bextox line are Bkxtox himself, Henry vS. Geyer, 
Trusten Polk, John B. Henderson, Carl Sclnir/., and Francis 
Marion Cockrell. 

Lucky the man who gets into Barton's seat; luckier, far 
luckier, the man who secures that of Thomas H. Benton, as 
the precedents indicate a longer public life for him. 

An examination of the dates at which Jilissourians entered 
and left the Senate will disclo.se two curious facts in Missouri 
history. She is the only State that ever elected two men for 
five full consecutive terms to the Senate of the United States — 
"six Roman lu.strums, " as Bextox was wont to boa.st in his 
pompous way. These were Bextox and Cockrell. She was 
the first State that had only one Senator for any considerable 
length of time through failure to elect another. By reason of 
the unrelenting warfare between the Bentonites and the anti- 
Bentonites the le.gislature chosen in 1854 never could and never 
did elect a Senator, as it was in duty boimd to do, so that for 
two entire years Henry S. Geyer was Mis.souri's only Senator. 

What is more, the governor did not appoint or attempt to 
appoint anyone to fill the vacancy, nobody then dreaming that 
the governor had such power. But in these later days sex'eral 
States have followed Missouri's example in failing to elect 
Senators; and, strange to .say, divers governors have insisted 
on the right to fill vacancies by appointment inider similar 
circum.stances, until finally the Senate, after length\- and jion- 
derous debate, .solennily vindicated the wisdom and knowledge 
of constitutional law possessed by the governor of Mi.ssouri in 
1S55 and 1S56, Sterling Price, by declaring that a governor 
has no right to make such ad interim appointment. 

Of Missouri's 21 Senators there were 14 Democrats, i Whig, 
and 6 Republicans. Of 156 years of Senatorial representation 
S. Doc. 456 2 



l8 Adc/iTss of Mr. Clark on the Acccpta)U€ of llir 

to which she has been entitled, 2 were not itsed, 6 fell to Whigs, 
22 to Republicans, and 126 to Democrats. 

This roster of Mis.souri Senators is an array of names of 
which the nation, no less than the State, may well be proud. 
There are many ijreat men — scarcely a small one — in the list. 

Missouri is proud of her immeasurable physical resources, 
which will one day make her facile princeps among her sisters; 
but there is something else of which she is prouder still, and 
that is her .splendid citizenship, consisting at this day of nearly 
4,000,000 industrious, intelligent, patriotic, progre.s.sive, law- 
abidin,g. God-fearing people. 

When questioned as to her riches she could with propriety 
imitate the example and quote the words of Cornelia, the 
mother of the heroic Gracchi, and, jioinling to her children, .say 
truthfulh' and pritlefuUy, "These are my jewels," 

In sending Thomas H.vrt Bexton and the younger Francis 
Prestox Blair to forever represent her in the .great American 
Valhalla, where the effigies of a nation's immortal worthies do 
congregate, Missouri made a most hapjiy and a most fitting 
selection from among a ho.st of her distinguished sons. These 
two men complement each other to an extraordinary degree. 
Really their lives formed but one career — a great career — a 
career of vast im]iort to the vState and nation. Both were 
vSuutherners by birth: both were soldiers of the Republic; both 
memliers of this Hou.se; both Senators of the United States; 
both added largely to American renown; both left spotless 
reputations as a heritage to their countrymen. 

The dominant passion of the.se two Mi.ssouri Titans was an 
absorbing love of the Union. To its preservation they devoted 
their great energies of mind and heart and body. To that end 
they \\-ere not iinl\- theoretically willing to spend and be spent, 
but were actually and literally spent. In that warfare they 



S/ii/iifs of Thovias H. Bcitloii and Francis P. Blair, ig 

sacrificed all those things which most men hold dear. In that 
cause Benton went to his political death, and Frank 1!i,.\ir 
rendered himself a physical wreck. In their vocal)ular\- there 
was no such word as "concession" or as "compromise." In 
very truth they took their lives in their hantls and fou.i^In the 
battle to the bitter end. 

U;ider the law each State has the right to place the 'statues 
of two — and only two — illustrious American citizens in Statu- 
ary Hall: Init in this regard Missouri has been more fortunate 
than most of her sister States, for, while she can place only two 
there herself, three of her soldier-state.smen stand there in 
bronze and marble as perpetual reminders of her glory. In 
addition to Benton and Bl.^ir, through the action of Illinois 
there stands Gen. James Shields, that illustrious Irish-Ameri- 
can, a hero of two wars, and the only man that ever did, or in 
all human probability ever will, represent three States of the 
Union in the Senate of the United States. 

Upon the base of his statue in j-onder hall are blazoned 
the coats of arms of Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri, in whose 
service he spent his life, but as he wrought for the whole 
country in the Senate and in the field, his fame belongs to the 
whole country, in who.se cause he freely shed his blood. 

Either Benton or Bl.vir is a sufficient theme for any orator. 

1 shall confine my remarks, in the main, to the latter, with 
only incidental reference to the former, leaving the great con- 
temporary of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun to my colleagues. 

In this era of good feeling it may seem ungracious to talk 
much about the civil war and may appear like "sweet bells 
jangled, out of tune;" btit this is a historic occasion, F'r.ank 
Bl.vik is a historic personage, and the truth should be told 
about him. All his deeds with which liistory will concern 
it.self are those which he performed in matters pertaining to 



20 .-{(Mrcss of Mr. Clark on llic Acccpla>icc of /he 

that unhappy period — either Ijefore, during, or after. A speech 
about him and without mention of these things would he like 
the play of Handet with the Prince of Denmark left out. 

mS BIRTHPLACE. 

Born in the lovely lilue-grass region of Kentucky, reared in 
Washington City, in the excitement and swirl of national 
politics, spending his manhood's days in St. Louis, the great 
city of the Iron Crown, his opportunities for growth were of 
the best, and he developed according to the expectations of 
his most sanguine friends. 

Within a radius of 75 miles of Lexington, Ky., where Fr.a.nk 
Blaik first looked forth upon this glorious world, more orators 
of renown were born or have exercised their lungs and tongues 
than upon any other plat of rural ground of the same size upon 
the habitable globe. 

Whether the in.spiring cause is the climate, the soil, the 
water, the lin.e.stone, or the whisky, I do not know, Init the 
fact remains. 

Within that circle are the counties of Franklin, Woodford, 
vScott, Fayette, Mercer, Bourbon, Nelson, Washington, Ander- 
.son, Owen, vShelby, Marion, Madi.son, Jessamine, Montgomery, 
Clark, and Boyle. 

Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, the Marshalls, the Breckin- 
ridges, the Prestons, the Shelbys, the .McAfees, the Browns, 
the Blairs, the Buckners, the Deshas, the Houstons, Old Bob 
Letcher, the Harlans, the Wickliffs, Old Ben Hardin, Leslie 
Coombs, John Rowan, the Thompsons, the Davises, the Tiu'u- 
ers, Richard IT. Menifee, the Goodloes, the Hansons, Henry 
Bascom, John Pope, the Johnstons, Chief Ju.stice Robertson, 
Ca.s.sius M. Clay, and his brother Brutus Junius, Joe Blackburn, 
George Graham \'est, Henry Watterson, J. Proctor Knott, Jim 



Sta/iu\s of T/ioiiias //. /irii/oii aiic/ /■'rainis P. lilair. 21 

McKcn/.iu, atul a host of choict spirits luu'c rouse-il tliL- nmlti- 
tlidc and made the welkin rintj. II' siicli a delineator of char- 
acter as William Makepeace Thackeray could ha\e known the 
men who first and last have been aronnd I,exin,i;lon, and Kiven 
us his impressions of them, or if such a hio.ujrapher as James 
Boswell could lia\-e followed lovini^ly at their heels to record 
their sayings, we would have the most entrancing hook that 
human eye ever gazed upon. 

Philosophers may say what they please, 1>ut man is largely 
a creature of enviroiunent, and with his siu'roundings from 
infancN-, it was inevitable that Frank Blair woidd (le\-ote 
his life to ]X)litics, 

KI.SE OF THK BLAIRS. 

The ri.se of the Blairs, father and sons, to great political emi- 
nence and power forms a mcst curious and interesting chapter 
in our history. 

The foundation of their career was laid by an anonymous 
article written by Francis P. Blair, sr. , for mental recreation 
purely, and printed in the Frankfort. Ky.. Argus, in the incipi- 
ent stage of the war of extermination waged by Andrew Jack- 
son against the old Bank of the United .States, which article 
luckily fell under Jackson's eagle eye and attracted his atten- 
tion. It may be doubted whether any other anonymous com- 
nuniication to any newspaper in any country since Guttenberg 
invented movable types was e\-er productive of so many and 
such far-reaching con.sequences. 

In that elder day, while the American newspaper was still in 
its infancy, every Administration had an "organ " at the .seat of 
government, supported in the main by public pap and by sub- 
•scriptions from Federal officials. Subscribe, resign, or be kicked 
out were the alternatives presented to all holders of govern- 
mental positions, from Secretary of State down to the si>ittoon 



22 Address of Mr. Clark on tlic Acceptance of tJic 

cleaners. So that to edit the organ was, in the popular par- 
lance of this day, to have a decidedly soft snap. 

Until his qnarrel with John C. Calhoun, a quarrel which 
wrecked more lives and was more prolific of calamities than the 
Trojan war, Jackson's organ was the United States Telegraph, 
owned and edited liy Gen. Duff Green. As long as he was 
faithful to his irascible and exacting chief, he lived in tall 
clover. 

But early in that historic feud Duff began to show signs of 
ratting to Calhoun, whereupon Jackson, with characteristic 
promptitude, be.gan lookin.g for another organist, and be found 
him accidentally, in the most unlikeh" person and most unex- 
pected place — certainly the greatest, the fiercest, the most cour- 
ageous, the most loyal to his chief, the mo.st puissant organist 
President e\-er had, Francis Preston Blair, sr., author of the 
anonymous article aforesaid, clerk of a court at Frankfort, Ky., 
the neighbor, relative, and quondam supporter of Henry Clay, 
' ' the great conunoner. ' ' To lay on and spare not the enemies 
of Andrew Jackson, personal or political, to smite them hip and 
thigh, to draw, quarter, and break them on the wheel, to .scalp 
and tomahawk them, to flay them alive inch by inch, to roast 
them at the stake, to gibbet them before high Heaven was a 
labor of love to that brave, lirainy, but mode.st Kentuckian. 

Recreant Democrats were the pet aversions — the betes 
noire — of this man whose pen was dipped in aqua fortis. For 
them he had no bowels of compassion; toward them he was 
absolutely merciless. According to his logic, desertion of 
Jackson was high trea.son to the country. For all such the pen- 
alty was death without benefit of clergy. When even so illu.s- 
trious a personage as Col. William R. King, of Alabama, sub- 
sequently Vice-President, once beg,ged him to soften a savage 
attack upon an erring Democrat, Blair sternly replied: " No; let 
it tear his heart out! " 



S/a/ucs of T/io»ias II. Ben/on a)id /■'ram is P. Blair. 23 

Hlair was essentially and incorrigilily a hero worshiiiper; 
hut it nuist he confessed that he had a hero \vorlh\- of the 
passionate love of all friends of human liberty, the matchless 
soldier who at New Orleans, with a handful of raw militia, in 
one glorious, rapturous hour slaughtered 2,600 Englishmen, 
defeated the picked veterans of the Peninsula who had snatched 
the iron crown of Charleinague from the brazen brow of Najw- 
lecjn, and lowered to the dust the towering pride of that mighty 
inonarcliN- upon whose dominion the sun never sets and wliose 
morning dnnnbeal encircles the globe. 

Xo such popularity as Andrew Jackson's has been vouchsafed 
to an American President since George Washington was laid to 
rest on the banks of the Potomac, a popularity which abides to 
this da\- and which will continue until our race has run its 
course and until the wide firmament is gathered up as a scroll. 

For twenty years all of the most serious and learned argu- 
ments of Whig statesmen were triumphantly and successfully 
answered by "Hurrah for Jackson!" and assuredly since the 
morning stars first sang together no man has better deserved 
being hurrahed for than Old Hickory. The intense love which 
his followers bore him has always reminded me of the pathetic 
enthusiasm of the French soldier, .sorely wounded, who. as 
Xapoleou .swept by at the head of the Old Guard, tore his 
shattered arm from his shoulder and waving it above his head 
shouted "Vive I'Empereur!" 

Blair coiupletely won the generous heart of Andrew Jack- 
son, which in itself was a greater honor than could have lieen 
conferred by any patent of nobility. The insignia of the Order 
of the Thistle or of the Star aud Garter, or of any other order, or 
of all others ever devised by the ingenuity of n\an or bestowed 
by the hand of any king, emperor, prince, czar, or potentate, it 
.seems to me, would not give an American as much pride and 
pleasure as to be able to say trulhfull\-, "I was beloved of 



24 Aiidrcss of Mr. Clark on the Acceptance of the 

Andrew Jackson." If Blair loved Jackson, the iron soldier 
repaid that love in Scripture measure, heaped up, pressed 
down, and running over. Almost the last letter he ever wrote 
was to Blair, at a time when the Polk Administration was 
endeavoring to force him to sell them the Globe under the 
penalty of their starting an opposition paper. I here quote 
part of it, so highly honorable to both the writer and the 
recipient and so characteristic of the former. Even at this 
distant day one can scarcely read the closing sentence with 
dry eyes: 

Hciw liiathsoine — 

Wrote Jackson — 

it is to me to see an olil frieml laid- aside, principles of ju.stice and friend- 
ship forgotten, and all for llie sake of policy, and the great Democratic 
■party divided or endangered for policy. I can not reflect upon it with any 
calmness. Every point of it, upon scrutiny, turns to harm and disunion, 
and not one beneficial result can be expected from it. I will be anxious 
to know the result, If harmony is restored, and the Globe the organ, I 
will rejoice; if .sold, to whom, and for what? Have, if you sell, the pur- 
chase money well secured. This may be the last letter I may be able 
to write you, but, live or die, I am your friend (and never deserted one 
from policy), and leave my papers and reputation in your keeping. 

The parenthesis in that .sentence explains the secret of Jack- 
son's wondrous power over the minds and hearts of men. 
"Never deserted a friend from policy" — those be .golden 
words. He might with exactest truth have enlarged the 
statement so as to read, "I never deserted either a friend or 
a princijile from policy or for any other reason whatsoever. ' ' 

The ori.ginal of that letter is carefully preserved in a .glass 
case in the Con,gressional Library, and should be re.garded as 
one of the precious treasures of the archives of the Republic, 

But this man, who swooped down upon Jack.son's enemies 
with cruel beak and blootly talons to rend and tear them — this 
man, who in his capacity of editor was so masterful, inexora- 
ble, and so dreaded, who killed ofif a Senator, a Cabinet officer, 



S/a/tus of Thomas H. Benton ami Francis P. Blair. 25 

a minister jjlenipotentiary and onvoy L-xlraiirdinary, or even 
an aspirant for the Presidency as ruthlesslv as he would have 
impaled a fly — was in private life liashfnl in deportment, 
a fond husband, a doting father, a kindly and obliging 
friend. 

SOLDIER. 

Fr.vxk Bl.\ir was a .soldier of two wars. He received his 
"baptism of fire" during our brief but glorious conflict with 
Mexico, being a lieutenant in that small, heroic band of Mis- 
sourians who, under Col. Alexander \V. Doniphan, made the 
a.stounding march to Santa Fe, Chihuahua, vSacramento, and 
Monterey — an achievement which added an empire to the 
Union and which threw into tlie shade that far-famed per- 
formance of Xenophon and his ten thousand which has been 
acclaimed by the historians of twenty centuries. 

In the civil war he began as a colonel, fought his way to a 
major-generalcy, and was pronounced by General Grant to be 
one of the two best volunteer officers in the ser\'ice, John A. 
Logan, "the Black Eagle of Illinois," who married a Missouri 
wife, being the other. In Sherman's famous march to the sea 
Blair conunanded a corps, and was con.sidered the Marshal 
Xey of that army. 

THE FIGHT FOR IMISSOURI. 

Early impressions are never effaced; and it may be — who 
knows? — that the fact that when a child he sat upon the knee 
of Andrew Jackson, received the ki.ss of hereditary friendshij) 
from his lips, and heard words of patriotism fall burning from 
his tongue determined his course in the awful days of '61, for 
Jackson himself, could he have returned to earth in the prime 
of life, could not have acted a sterner or more heroic part than 
did his foster son. 



26 Address of Mr. Clark on ilw Aciiplaiicc of tlic 

The fact that Andrew Jackson, Thomas Hart Benton, 
and tlie elder Francis Preston Blair were sworn friends most 
]irobal)ly caused young Frank to settle in St. Lotiis, a perform- 
ance which, though little noted at the time, in all human prob- 
ability kept Missouri in the Union and thereby defeated the 
efforts of the Southern people for independence; for had it not 
been for Blair's cool courage, clear head, unquailing spirit, 
indefatigable industry, commanding influence, and rare fore- 
sight, the vSouthern sympathi/.ers in Missouri would ha\-e 
succeeded in taking her into the Confederacy. 

There never was in this world a struggle in which time 
was more the essence of things than in the fight for Missouri. 
The people were divided into something like three e([ual 
parts — one for the Union, another for secession, while the minds 
of the third were not made up, but were in a plastic condition. 
This halting, wavering third became decisive of the contest. 
To control it Bl.air and his opponents waged a battle royal. 
If, in the beginning, Bl.air cotild ha\-e aroused the Fetleral 
Government to a realization of the vast strategic importance 
of Missouri and to the necessity for early action, his task 
would have been easy. If, in the begiiniing, his antagoni.sts 
exjuld have aroused the Missouri legislature to a comprehen- 
.sion of the situation and could have induced the State authori- 
ties to .seize the United States Arsenal at St. Louis before Gen. 
Nathaniel Lyon was placed in command, their task would have 
been ea,sy; but when Lyon appeared upon the scene, their one 
golden opportiuiily was gone. 

It was a colossal stake for which this master spirit played; 
ne\'ertheless, understanding clearly the gravity of the game, he 
played it to the etid with superb audacity and with nerves of 
steel — no hesitation, no equivocation, no mental reservation, 
no repining, no doubting, no backward glance on his part. 



S/(r///i's of Tlioiiias II. I'tiitoii ami Francis /'. Blair. 27 

Witlidiit Icaxx- iir license from anyixxh- he orp^anized and 
drilled in secret four re.t;inients, mostly Germans. arniin>; them 
with o;iiiis which he purchased with money begged by him from 
Unionists in the North, so that when (kivernor Jackson jier- 
emptorily declined to furnish the four regiments which consti- 
tuted Missouri's quota under President Lincoln's first call for 
75,000 volunteers, Blair promptly tendered by telegraph his 
four regiments which he had been for months secretly recruit- 
ing in St. Louis and had them mustered into the .service. Not 
onl\- that, but he tendered six more regiments, which were also 
accepted. 

The Government offered him a brigadier's commission as 
commander of that brigade, which he gracefully and firmly 
declined in favor of Lyon — an act of generosity and .self-abne,ga- 
tion unusual among men. 

Time fought for Blair in this strange contest for possession 
of a State, for the preservation of the Republic. 

Those who mo.st effectuall\- tied the hands of the secessionists 
and who unwittingly Init most largely played into P.l.vik's were 
the advocates of "armed neutrality" — certainl\- the most jire- 
posterous theory ever hatclied in the brain of man. Who was 
its father can not now be definitely ascertained, as nobody is 
anxious to claim the dubi(nis honor of its paternity. What 
it reall_v meant may be shown by an incident that iLaiijiened in 
the great historic county of Pike, where I now reside — a couiun- 
which furnished one brigadier-general and five colonels to the 
Union Army and three colonels to the Confederate, with a full 
complement of officers and men. 

Early in icS6i a great "neutrality meeting" was held at 
Bowling Green, the county seat. Hon. William L. Gatewood, 
a prominent lawyer, a Mrginian or Kentuckian by birth, an 
ardent Southern sympathizer, sub.sequently a State .senator, was 



2.S Addnss of Mr. Clark on the Accrptaiicc of tlie 

elected chairman. The Pike County orators were out in full 
force, lint chief among them was Hon. George W. Anderson, 
also a prominent lawyer, an Ea.st Tennesseeaii by nativity, 
afterwards a colonel in the Union Army, State senator, and for 
four years a member of Congress. Eloquence was on tap and 
flowed freely. Men of all shades of opinion fraternized; the>- 
pas.sed strong and ringing resolutions in favor of ' ' armed neu- 
trality," and " all went merry as a marriage bell." 

Chairman Gatewood was somewhat mystified and not alto- 
gether satisfied l.)y the harmonious proceedings; .so, after 
adjournment sine die, he took Anderson out tinder a convenient 
tree and in his shrill tenor neryousl\- inquired, "George, what 
does 'armed neutralit\- ' mean, anyhow?" .\nder.son, in his 
deep bass, growled, "It means guns for the Union men and 
none for the rebels! " — the truth and wisdom of which remark 
are now perfecth- ajjparent. [Laughter.] So it was, verily. 
Anderson had hit the 1)nirs-e>'e, and no mistake. If he had 
orated for an entire month, he could not have stated the case 
more luminously or nmre comprehensively. He had exhausted 
the subject. Before the moon had waxed and waned again 
the leaders of that ' ' neutralitx " love feast were hurrying to and 
fro, beating up for volunteers in every nook and corner in the 
county — some for service in the Union, others for .service in 
the Confederate, army. 

But it is proverliial that "hindsight is better than foresight." 
Men must lie judged by their own knowledge at the time they 
acted, not by ours; by tlie circumstances with which they were 
surrounded, and not by those which environ us. What may 
apj.iear unfatlmmable problems tn the wise men of one genera- 
tion may be clear as cr>-stal to even the dullest of the suc- 
ceeding generation. However ridiculous " armed neutrality," 
judged liy the hard logic of events, nia\- appear in the retro- 
.spect; however untenable we now know it to have been, the fact 



S/a/itcs of T/ion/as //. Bciilon and Francis P. Blair. 29 

nevertheless remains thai it was honestly believed in and enthu- 
siastically advocated 1)\- thousands of capable, brave, and honest 
men all over Kentucky and Missmn-i, many of whom afterwards 
won laurels o\\ the battlefield and laid down their h\-es in one 
army or the other in defense of what they deemed ri.t;ht. 

When we consider the men who were against Hi.aik it is 
astounding that he succeeded. To say nothing of scores then 
unknown to fame, who were conspicuous soldiers in the Con- 
federate army and who have since held high political position, 
arraved against him were the governor of the State, Claiborne 
F. Jackson: the lieutenant-governor, Thomas C. Reynolds; 
ex-United States Senator and ex- Vice-President David R. 
Atchison; United States Senators Trusteii Polk and James S. 
Green, the latter of whom had no superior in intellect or as a 
debater upon this continent; Waldo P. Johnson, elected to suc- 
ceed Green in :\Iarch, 1861, and the well-beloved ex-governor 
and ex-brigadier-general in the Mexican war. Sterling Price, 
by long odds the most popular man in the State. 

Xo man between the two oceans drew his sword with more 
reluctance or used it with more valor than "Old Pap Price." 
The statement is not too extravagant or fanciful for belief that 
had he been the sole and absolute conmiander of the Confed- 
erates who won the battle of Wil.son's Creek, he woidd have 
rescued Missouri from the Unionists. 

The thing that enabled Bl.vik to succeed was his settled 
conviction from the first that there would be war — a war of 
coercion. While others were ho])ing against hope that war 
could be averted or, at least, that Missouri could be ke])t out 
of it, even if it did come — -while others were making constitu- 
tional arguments, while others were temporizing and dallying— 
he acted. Believing that the ([uestions at issue could l)e settled 
onlv bv the sword, and also Ijelieving in Napoleon's maxim 



30 Address of Mr. Clark on the Aeeeptciiiee of tJie 

that " CtOiI fiLjhts on the side df the heaviest battahons," he 
griinlx- made read>' for the part wliich he intended to play in 
the 1jlood>' drama. 

"THK ARDUOUS GREATNESS OF THINGS DONE." 

Blair was 5 feet 11 inches in heii^ht, straight as an Indian, 
of slender, \vir\' frame, hazel eyes, auburn hair, ruddy complex- 
ion, and aquiline nose. He was of what the phrenologists 
denominate the sanguine-nervous temperament. He was an 
optimist by nature and had unbounded confidence in him.self 
and in Missourians, with whose capabilities, characteristics, 
sentiments, and prejudices he was as well acquainted as any 
man that ever lived. 

On the 30th of Ma>-, 1S61, in urging the President to author- 
ize the enlistment of a large number of Missourians, he wrote 
these words, which, in the light of what happened in the suc- 
ceeding four years, appear amazing: 

We are well able — 

He said — 

to take care of ourselves in this State without assistance from elsewere if 
authorized to raise a sufficient force within the State; and after that work 
is done we can take care of the secessionists from the .\rkansas line to the 
Gulf, along the west .shore of the Mississippi. 

The most spectacular feature of the great Chicago national 
Republican convention of iSSo was Conkling's .speech nominat- 
ing Grant. That ma.sterful oration will be read with rapture 
by millions yet unborn. It contained a single sentence which 
alone made it worth}' of remembrance. In de.scribing Grant, 
Conkling said; 

His fame was born not alone of thiuijs written and said, Init of the ardu- 
ous ijreatness of things done. 

The phrase ' ' the arduous greatness of things done ' ' was 
original with the brilliant New Yorker, and constitutes a rich 



S/,7//trs of Thiuiias If. /u;iiton aiic/ Francis /'. lUair. 31 

and permanent addition to our literature. It slicks to the 
memory like a burr. It fills a lon.tc-felt want. It ajijilies to 
Fr.vxk Bi..\ir as well as to the great captain in whose pre.sence 
the whole world inicovered, for Hl.mr's fame rests also largely 
on "the arduous greatness of things done." 

Col. Thomas L. Snead, who was Price's chief of ordnance as 
well as adjutant-general of the State guard, who wrote The 
Fight for Mi.ssouri, one of the very be.st books aliout the ci\-il 
war, in speaking of the battle of Boonville, pays this splendiil 
and ungrudging tribute to Blaik: 

Insignificant as was this engagement in a niilitary aspect, it was in fact 
a stunning blow to the Southern-rights people of the State, and one which 
did incalculable and unending injury to the Confederates. It was indeed 
the consummation of Bl.\ir's state.smanlike scheme to make it impos- 
sible for Missouri to secede or out of her great resources to contrilmte 
abundantly of men and material to the Southern cau.se, as she would 
surely have done had her people been left free to do as they pleased. 

It was also the crowning achievement of Lyon's well-conceived cam- 
paign. The capture of Camp Jackson had disarmed the State and com- 
pelled the loyalty of St. Louis and all the adjacent counties. The advance 
upon Jefferson City had put the State government to flight and taken 
away from it that prestige which gives force to established authoril_\-. 
The dispersion of the volunteers who liad rushed to Boonville to fight 
under Price for Missouri and the South extended Lyon's conquest over 
all that counlrv l\ing between the Missouri and the State of Iowa, closed 
all the avenues by which the Southern men of that part of Jlissouri 
could make their way to I'rice, made the Mkssouri an unobstructed Fed- 
eral highway from its source to its mouth, and rendered it impossible 
for Price to hold the rich, populous, and frien<lly counties in the vicinity 
of Lexington. Price had indeed no alternative now but to retreat in all 
haste to the southwestern corner of the State, there to organize his army 
under the protection of the force which the Confederate government was 
mustering in northwestern Arkansas mider General McCuUoch for the 
protection of that State and the Indian Territory. 

Again, in summing up the achievements of Gen. Nathaniel 

Lyon, who was Bi.air's sworn friend and ally, carrxing out 

Blair's general plan, Colonel .Snead .says: 

By capturing the Slate militia at Cam]) Jackson and driving the gov- 
ernor from the capital and all his troops into the uttermost corner of 
the Slate, and by holding I'rice and McCuUoch at bay, he had given 



32 Address of Mr. Clark "// tin- Acceptance of the 

the Union men of Jlissouri time, opportunity, and courage to bring their 
State convention together again, and had given the convention an excuse 
and the power to depose Governor Jackson and Lieutenant-Governor 
Revnolds, to vacate the seats of the members of the general assembly, 
and to establish a State government which was loyal to the Union and 
which would use the whole organized power of the State— its treasury, its 
credit, its militia, and all its great resources— to sustain the Union and 
crush the South. 

A few incidents out nf a luultitinle which niii^ht be cited will 
show the character of political warfare in Missoitri in the days 
when Blair was on the boards. 

Before the war he went to Hannibal to make an emancipation 
speech. A mob gathered to break up the meeting. While he 
was speaking some one hit him sqttarely in the forehead with 
an egg. He wiped it off with his finger, flipped it on the 
ground, and imperturbably proceeded, making not the slightest 
allusion to the incident. His niarvelotis nerve charmed his 
audience, hostile though it was, and those who had come to 
stone him remained to applaud. 

In the out.skirts of Louisiana, Mo., stand four immense sugar 
trees, which, if the Druidical religion were in vogue in the Mis- 
.sissippi Valley, would lie set aside as objects of worsliip by 
Democrats. They form the corners of a rectangle about large 
enough for a speaker's platform. Beneath their grateful 
shadow, with the Father of Waters Ijehind him, the eternal 
hills in front (jf him, the bltie sky aliove his head, in the pres- 
ence of a great and curious concour.se of people, Frank Blair 
made the first Democratic speech delivered in Missouri after 
the close of the civil war. Excitement was intense. Anued 
men of all shades of opinion al)ounded on every hand. When 
Blair aro.se to speak he unbuckled his pistol belt and coolly 
laid two navy revolvers on the talile. He prefaced his remarks 
as follows: 

Fellow-citizens, I understand that I .am to l)e killed here to-ilay. I have 
just come out of four years of that sort of business. If there is to be any 
of it here, it had better be attteuded to before the speaking begins. 



Sfalucs of TlioDias H. Bciiton a?id /-'raiicis /'. Blair. 33 

TIkU calm hut picgnaiil cxorcliuin has perhaps no rdunti-r- 

part ill the entire range of oratorx'. 

There was silence deep as death; 
And the boldest held his breath 
For a time. 

lie then proceeded with his i-peech, bnt hatl not been goini; 
more than five minutes until a man of gigantic proportions 
started toward him, shaking his huge fist and shouting, "lie's 
an arrant rebel! Take him out! Take him out!" Bi.aik 
•Stopped, looked the tiian in the face, crooked his finger at 
him, and said, " Voti come and take me out!" whicli put an 
end to that episode, for the man who was \elling "Take him 
out!" suddenly realized that Bi.aik's index finger, which was 
beckoning him on, would soon be pressing the trigger of one 
of those ])istols if he did go on, and he prudenth- declined 
Bi..\ik's invitation. 

He got through that da\' without blmidshed; bnt when he 
.spoke at Warrensburg, a little later, he had not proceeded a 
quarter of an hour before a prominent citizen sitting on the 
speaker's stand started toward Bi.aik, with a pistol in his hand 
and with a mighty oath, yelling: "That statement is a lie!" 
which instantly precipitated a free fight, in which one man was 
killed and several severely wonnded. 15i,.\.iR went on with his 
speech amid ceaseless interruptions. I know a venerable, mild- 
mainiered. Christian statesman, now in this very Capitol, who 
for two mortal hours of that pandemoniinn stood with his hand 
U])on his revolver ready to shoot down any man tli.at assaulted 

I'.I.AIK. 

Afterwards Bl.\ik was adverti.sed to speak at Marshall, in 
Saline County. On the day of his arrival an armed mob was 
organized to prevent him from speaking, and an armed bod\' of 
Democrats swore he should. A collision occurred, resulting in 
a regular pitched battle, in which several men lost their lives 
and others were liadlx' injured. But Bi,.\ik made his s])eech. 
S. Doc. 456 ', 



34 . IiM/Tss o/'Jl/r. Clark on the Acccplaiicc of thf 

One nis;ht he was speakini; in Lucas Market pkice, in ,St. 
Louis, wheu a man in the crowd, not 20 feet from the stand, 
pointed a revoh'er directly at him. Friendl\' hands interposed 
to turn the aim sk>'ward. "Let him shiiot, if he (ktres," said 
I'll. AIR, jjazing coolly at his would-he nuirderer; " if I am wronsj, 
I (_)Ught to Ije shot, but this man is not the jiroper executioner." . 
The fellow was hustled from the audience. 

Amid such .scenes he toured the State from the Des Moines 
River to the Arkansas line and from the Mississippi to the 
mouth of the raging Kaw. The man who did that had a lion's 
heart in his hreast. 

A LEADER. 

The old Latin dictum runs: " Poeta nascitiu', non fit." The 
.same is true of the leader of men — he is horn, not made. 

What constitutes the quality of leadershiji, Mr. .Speaker? 
Vou do not know. I do not know. None of us knows. No 
man can tell. 

Talent, genius, learning, courage, eloquence, greatness in 
many fields we may define with something approximating 
exactness: hut who can inform us as to the constituent ele- 
ments i)f leadership? We all recognize the leader the moment 
we hehold him, but what entitles him to that distinction is and 
perhaps must forever remain one of the unsoh'ed mwsteries of 
psychology. 

Talent, even genius, does not make a man a leader, for some 
men of the jirofoundest talents, others of the most dazzling 
genius, have been .servile followers and have deba.sed their rich 
.gifts from God to the flatter)- of despots. Most notable among 
tho.se was Lord Bacon, the father of the inductive philosophy, 
who posses.sed the most exquisite intellect ever hoirsed in a 
liunian skull, and whose spirit was scj abject and so groveling 



S/atitcs of TJionias II. Briitoii and I'rainis P. lUair. 35 

that he was not unjustly described in that bhsteriii.y;, scornful 

couplet !)>■ Alexander Pope: 

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd. 
The wisest, bri^rhtest, meanest of inankimll 

Courage is not synonymous with the cjualiix- of k-adersliip. 
thoug'h necessary to it, for .some of the bravest soldiers that 
ever met Death upon the battlefield and defied him to his face 
were amazingly lacking in that re.gard. 

Learning does not render a man a leader, for some of the 
greatest scholars of wliom history tells were wholK without 
influetice over their fellow-men. Elo(|uence does not make a 
leader, for some of the world's greatest orators, among them 
Cicero, have been the veriest cravens; and no craven can lead 
men. 

I'.ut whatever the quality is, jieople recognize it instinctively, 
and inevitabl\- follow the man who pos.sesses it. 

Fk.\nk Bi,.\ik was a natural leader. 

Vet during his career there were finer scholars in .Missoini 
than he, tlu)Ugh he was an excellent scholar, a graduate from 
Princeton; there were more .splendid orators, though he ranked 
with the most convincing and persuasive: there were pro- 
fomider lawyers, though he stood high at the bar; there were 
better mixers, though he was of cordial and witming manners; 
there were men, perhaps, of stronger mental force, though he 
was amply endowed with brains, so good a judge of human 
nature as Abraham Lincoln .saying of him, "He has abundant 
talents;" there were men as brave, though he was of the 
l)ravesl: but as a leader he overtopped them all. 

Believing .sincerely that human slavery was wrong per se and 
that it was of most evil to the States where it existed, he 
fought it tooth and nail, not from sympathy for the ne.groes 
so nnich as from affection for the whites, and created the 



36 A/Mrrss of Mr. Clark mi the Acceptance of tlie 

Repulilican part>' in Missouri lieforc tlit civil war — a most 
hazardous performance in that day and latitude. At its close, 
when, in his judgment, his party associates had become the 
oppressors of the people and the enemies of liberty, he left 
them, and lifting; in his mi.i,dit\' arms the Democracy, which lay 
bleeding and swooning in the dust, he breathed into its no.s- 
trils the breath of life — another performance of extraordinary 
hazard. 

This man was of the stuff out of which martyrs are made, 
and he would ha\'e gone grimly, undannteilh', unflinchingly, 
and (lefiantl>- to the block, the scaffold, or the stake m defense 
of an\- cause which he considered just. Though he was impe- 
rious, tempestuous, dogmatic, and im])etuous, though no danger 
could swerve him from the path of duty, thou,gh he .gave tre- 
mendous blows to his anta.goni.sts and received man\- of the 
same kind, he had infinite compassion for the helpless and 
the weak, and to the end his heart remained tender as a 
little child's. 

When he came out of the Army, with his .splendid military 
and civil record, it may be doubted whether there was any 
official jiosition, howe\'er exalted, beyond his reach if he had 
remained with the Re])ublicans. I have alwa>-s believed, and 
do now l>elie\'e, that by severing his connection with them he 
pro1)ably threw away the Vice- Presidency — possif)l\' the Presi- 
dency itself — a position for which most statesmen pant even as 
the hart panteth for the water brook. During his long, stormy, 
and vicissitudinous career he alwaxs unhesitatingly did what 
he thou.ght was right for right's sake, leaving the con.sequences 
to take care of them.selves. That he was ambitious of political 
preferment there can be no ijnestion: but office had no charms 
for him if it involved sacrifice <.)f principle or compromi.se of 
conscience. 



Statues of Thomas 11. Benton and I-'rancis /*. Blair, yj 

This great man, for »reat he was heyoiul even tlie sliadow of 
a doubt, enjo\eil the (iistinetion uni(|Ue anion.u statesmen of 
beinj; liated and loved in turn by all Mis,sourians, of chanfjinji; 
his political affiliations violenth- twice lon.s; after he had passed 
the formative and effervescent period of voiith, and. while spend- 
iiit;' nearly his entire life in the hnrl\-burl\- c)f polities, of (h'ini;- 
at last mourned by every man and woman in tlie State whose 
good opinion was worth jiosse.ssing. In that respect his career 
is without a parallel. Born a Democrat, he served in this House 
as a Rejnililican. in the Senate as a Democrat, and died, fniallv, 
in the political faith of his fathers. 

Change of party affiliations by a man of mature age is nearly 
always a painful performance — generally injurious to his fame; 
l)nt Hi..\ik's two complete changes of base ap])ear to have 
increased the respect in which men held him, and the secret of 
this anomaly is that in each instance he (piit a trium])hant and 
arrogant majority with which he was a prime faxorite to link 
his fortunes with a feeble and hojieless minorit\- — proof con- 
clusive of his rectitude of ptirjxxse. whereas, if he had abandoned 
a minoritx' to join a majority his honesty of motixe might have 
well l)eeii impugned. 

BknTO.v's scorn of his ojiponents was .so loft\' and so galling, 
the excoriations he inllicted — axe, lavished — upon them bred 
such rancor in their hearts, the lash with which he .scourged 
them left such festering wounds, that tlie>- never forgave him 
luitil they knew he was dead — dead as Julius C;e.sar — dead 
beyond all cavil. Then they ])nt on sackcloth and ashes and 
gave him the most magnificent funeral e\-er .seen west of the 
Mis.sissippi. 

Hl.mr's was a happier fate than that of his illustrious ]>roto- 
type and exemplar. While from the day of his retinn from 
the Mexican war to the hour of his retirement from the Senate 



38 Address of Mr. Clark on the Acceptanee of the 

he was in the forefront of ever>- pohtical battle in Missouri — 
and nowhere on earth were pohtical wars wafted with more 
ungovernable fury — such were his endearin.t; qualities that the 
closing years of his life were placid as a snnuner evening, and 
he died amid the lamentations of [a might>' people. Republi- 
cans seemed to remember only the good he had done them, 
forgetting the injuries, while Democrats forgot the injtmes he 
had inflicted upon them and remembered only the :nvalual)le 
service he had rendered. Union veterans named a Grand Army 
post for him; Confederates proudly call their boys Frank Blair, 
and his fellow-citizens, without regard to creed or party, erected 
his .statue of heroic size in Forest Park to perpetuate his fame 
to coming generations. 

THK BOKDKR .ST.\TKS DURING THE W.\R. 

Gen. William Tecumseh vSherman once said, " War is hell!" 
Tho.se who lived in "the border States" during our civil war 
anil who are old enough to remember the tragic events of that 
bloody l.)Ut heroic epoch in our annals will with one accord 
indorse his idea, if not his .sulphurous language. 

It was easy to be a Union man in Massachusetts. It was not 
])rofitable to lie anything else. It was easy to be a Confederate 
in South Carolina. It was not safe to be anything else. But 
in Kenluck)', Missouri, and the other border States it was peril- 
ous to be the one thing or the other. Indeed it was dangerous 
to be neither and to sit on the fence. [Laughter.] 

I was a child when Sumter was fired on, living in Washing- 
ton County. Ky. I remember an old fellow from whom the 
Union raiders took one horse and the Confederate raiders 
another. So when a third party of soldiers met him in the 
road and inquired whether he were a I'nion man or a rebel, 
being dubious as to their army affiliations, he an.swered diplo- 
maticallv, "I am neither one nor the other, and very little of 



Slatitcs of Thomas H. Boiloii and Fraiin's /'. B/a/r. 39 

that," and thereliy lost his third and last horso to ConfedfraiLS 
disguised in hhic uniforms. [Laughter and a])plause.] 

The Kentuckians are a peculiar people — the most hospitable, 
the most emotional, the kindest hearted under the sini: hut 
they are born warriors. .\ genuine son of "the Dark and 
Bloody Ground" is in his normal condition oid\' when fight- 
ing. It seems to me that somebody mtist have sown th.-it 
rich land with dragon's teeth in the early days. To use a 
sentence indigenous to the soil, "A Kentuckian will fight at 
the droj) of a hat, antl dro]3 it himself." So the war was his 
golden opportunity. He went to death as to a festival. Xearl\- 
every able-bodied man in the State — and a great many not able- 
bodied — not only of military age, but of any age. young enough 
or old enough to scpieeze in, took up arms on one side or the 
other, and .sometimes on l)oth. 

Neighbor against neighbor, father against son, brother 
against brother, slave against master, and frequently wife 
against husband: tlie fierce contention entered even into the- 
ologv, rent congre.gations in twain, severed the ties of blood, 
and blotted out the friendships of a lifetime. 

Men who were Ijorn and reared on adjoining farms, who h.ul 
attended the same schools, played the same games, courted the 
same girls, danced in the .same sets, belonged to the .same 
lodges, and worshiped in the same churches, suddeidy went 
gunning for each other as remorselessly as red Indians — onl\- 
thev had a clearer vision and a surer aim. From the moinh 
of the Big Sandy to the mouth of the Teiuiessce there was not 
a square mile in which .sonic awful act of violence did not take 
place. 

Kentucky has always been celebrated for and cursed b> its 
bloody feuds — feuds which cause the Italian \endetta to apjiear 
a holiday performance in conijjarison. Of course the war was 
the evening-up time, and nian\- a man became a \-iolent Unionist 



40 .'liMrcss ofMr. Chirk on tlic Acccplaiicc i" llu- 

because the ancient enemies of his house were Soutliern sympa- 
thizers, and vice versa. Some of them could have o;iven point- 
ers to Fra Diavolo himself. 

As all the evil passions of men were aroused, and all restraints 
of propriety as well as all fear of law were removed, every 
latent tendency toward crime was warmed into life. The land 
swarmed with cutthroats, robbers, thieves, firebugs, and male- 
factors of every degree and kind, who preyed upon the old, the 
inlirni, the helpless, and committed thou.sands of brutal and 
heinous crimes — in the name of the Union or the Soutliern 
Confederacy. 

Missouri, prior to tiie war, was more a KeiUucky colony than 
an>thing else, with the Kentucky characteristics, feuds and all, 
rei>roduced iu stronger and larger form in her amazingly fertile 
soil. So all that goes before applies to Mis.souri as well as to 
Kentucky. 

From the first Missouri has been the stornu' petrel of Amer- 
ican politics. The richest, the most imperial Commonwealth 
in the Ihiion, her geographical location always placed her in 
the thick of the fight. She was a slave peninsula jutting out 
into a free-soil sea. 

The first serious trouble on the sla\-er\- (|uestion came with 
her admission into the I'nion, and the .second over the admis- 
sion of California — a Mi.ssouri colony. Most people date hos- 
tilities from Sumter, April, 1861. As a matter of fact, Mis.souri 
and Kansas had been carrying on a ci\-il war on their own hook 
for '[W'ti or six years before the first gun was fired in Charleston 
Harbor. 

If Sir Walter Scott had lived in that ilay, he could have 
found enough material for fifty novels descriptive of border 
warfare in the forays and expU)its of the Missourians and Kau- 
sans before the first soldier was legally nuistered into the service 
of either armw 



S/(t///t's of Thomas 11. Bcnloii and Francis /'. Blair. .\\ 

( )iU nil a Kansas jjrairit- slands a nioiuiiiieiit tci cilil Jnliii 
Bnnvii. reciting the fact, inter alia, that lie coniniaiuled "at the 
liatlle "f Ossawatoniie on the ,v^tli cla\' (if August, i.Ssfi." 

Whether the opposing conunander has a iiioiuiiiieiit I do 
not know. 

1 witnessed only one liattle durin.g the civil war. A line in 
Gen. Basil W. Duke's entertaining book. Morgan and His 
Men, is all that is vouchsafed to it in the literature of the war; 
but snreh' it was the most astounding martial caper ever cut 
since Nimrod invented the military art. and it fully illustrates 
the Kentuckian's inherent and ineradicable love of fighting. 

I saw seven home guards charge the whole of Morgan's Cav- 
alry — the very flower of Kentucky chivalry. 

I was working as a farm hand for one John Call, who wa.s 
the proud owner of several fine horses of the famous " co])per- 
Ijottom" breed. 

Morgan had, jierhaps, as good an eye for a "'saddler" as was 
ever set in a human head, and during those troublous days his 
iiiiml was sadly mixed on the meum and tuum when it came to 
equine.s — a remark applicable to many others besides Morgan, 
on lioth .sides at that. 

Call, hearing that Morgan was coming, and knowing hi^ peii- 
cliaiil for the noblest of quadrupeds, ordered \\\<- to mount " in 
hot haste" and "take the horses to the woods." 

Just as I had climbed upon a magnificent chestnut sorrel, tit 
for a king's charger, and was rounding up the others, I looked 
up, and in the level rays of the setting stimmer sun .saw Mor- 
gan's Cavalry in "all the pride, pomp, and circumstance of 
glorious war" riding up the broad gravel road on the backbone 
of a long, hi.gh ridge, half a mile to the south. I'"ascinated by 
the glittering array. Iwylike, I forgot Cali and the peril of his 
horses and watched the gay cavalcade. 

Suddenly I saw seven horsemen emerge from the little village 



42 AiMress of Mr. CInrk on the Acceptance of the 

of Mackvilk- and n<le furiously down the turnpike- to within 
easy pistol ranv^e of the Confederates and open fire. I could 
hear the crack of the revohers and see the flash and smoke, 
and when Morgan's advance guard fell liack on the main body 
I observed that one riderless horse went l)ack with them and 
that onlv six home guards rode back to Mackville in lieu of the 
seven who had ridden forth to battle. 

Morgan's connnand halted, deployed in battle line, and rode 
slowU- uji the hill, while I rode a great deal faster to the woods. 

The home guards had shot one man out of his .saddle and 
cajitured him, and Morgan had captured one of them. Next 
morning the home guards, from their forest fa.stness, sent in a 
flag of truce and regularh- negotiated an exchange of prisoners 
according to the rules in such cases made and jirovided. 

( )f course Morgan would have paid no attention to the seven 
men, but he suppo.sed that even his own native Kentucky never 
nurtured .seven dare-devils .so reckless as to do a thing like that 
unless they had an army back of them. 

I ha\-e often thought of that matchless deed of daring, and 
can say, in the language of the Frenchman who witnes.sed the 
charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava: "It is magnificent, 
but not war." 

Years afterwards one of the seven was .sending his children 
to school to me. After I became well acquainted with him, 
one day I said to him: "Gibson, I have always wanted to know 
what made yon seven fellows charge Morgan." "Oh." he 
replied, "we were all full of fighting whi.sky "— an explanation 
which explaineil not only that fight but thousands more. 
[Laughter.] 

If that splendid feat of arms had been performed in New 
England bv New Englanders the world could .scarcely contain 
the books which would have been written about it. It would 



S(a(ties of Thomas H. Benton and Francis P. Blair. 43 

have been clironicled in history and chanted in son>); as an 
iuexhaiistible theme. 

It is generally assumed by the wiseacres who write the his- 
tories that in the border States the old, wealthy, prominent 
slaveholding families all adhered to the Confederacy, and that 
only the poor, the obscure natives and the immigrants from the 
North stood by tlie old flag. This is a serious mistake. The 
great historic dominant family connections divided, thereby 
making confusion worse confounded. Prominent people wore 
the Confederate gray. Others just as prominent wore the 
Union blue. 

Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge, the great theologian, with a 
decided and incurable bias for politics, who presided o\er 
the Republican natioual convention of 1864, which nominated 
Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, was a stanch I'nion 
man. Two of his sons achieved high rank in the Confederate 
armies and two others in the Union armies. 

His illustrious cousin, John C. Breckinridge, resigned his seat 
in the United States Senate to become a lieutenant-general in 
the vSouthern army, while James S. Jack.son. Representative 
from the Green River di.strict, resigned his .seat in the House to 
become a brigadier in the Union Army and died a hero's death, 
leading his division on the hard-fought field of Perry ville. 

Rodger Hanson, the eloquent, became a Confederate general 
and fell on the field of his glory at Stone River, while his 
brother won distinction on the other side as general of brigade. 

John J. Crittenden — the best beloved of Kentucky states- 
men — unflinchingly stood by the Union, while one of his sons 
wore the double stars of a Union major general, another achiev- 
ing similar rank in the Confederate army. 

The Henry Clay branch of the great Clay family espoused 
the Confederate cause, while the Cassius M. Cla>- branch 



44 ^-^iMiTss of Mr. Clark nil tlic Acccplaiicc of iJic 

f()nu;hl with the traditional courage of their race for tlie soU- 
ilarity of the I'nioii. 

John Marshall Harlan — now Mr. Justice Harlan, of the Su- 
])reme Court — with a pedigree rimning back to the cavaliers 
of Jamestown — won renown on main- a Moody field, fighting 
under "Old Pap" Thomas — "the Rock of Chickamauga." 

In the same army were Lovell H. Rousseau, the ideal sol- 
dier and princely gentleman, and Benjamin H. Bristow, who 
missed the Presidencx' only In- a scratch and through lack of 
organization of his forces. 

I had two schoolmates, older than nnself, named Dickinson, 
beardless boys and brothers, one of whom enlisted with Mor- 
gan as a private and the other in the same capacitx' in lirave 
ohl Frank Wolford's famous First Kentuck>- Union Cavalry. 
The strange fcjrtunes of civil war brought these brothers face 
to face in the .great Indiana-Ohio raid — the greatest ride ever 
taken since horses were fir.st broken to bit and rein — and 
when Morgan was captured, the Confederate Dickinson .sur- 
rendered to his I'nion bnither. 

In Mi^soin-i. Thumas H.\kt Benton, "the great Senator," 
a North Carolinian b_\- birth and a Tennesseean by training, 
lost his curule chair in 1S51 on the sla\ery question, and so 
long as he lived his \-ast influence was for the I'nion; and 
it was his political pupil — Fr.vxk P. Blair, a Kentuckian 
and a slaveholder — who more than an>' other held Missouri 
to the Union, while his cousin. Gen. Jo Shelby, was the beau 
sabreur of the trans- Mis.sissip]>i Confederates. 

To the same class belonged James O. Broadhead, John B. 
Henderson, lidward Bates, Hamilton R. Gamble, Willard P. 
Hall, John D. vStevenson, Thomas C. Fletcher, Thomas T. 
Crittenden, Samuel T. Glover, John F. Phillips, B. Gratz Brown, 
John D. S. Dryden, James S. Rollins — the most Itrilliant orator 



Sta/ucs of Thomas H. JUii/o/i oiid I'raiuis I'. />/air. 45 

and one of the largest slave owners in the Slate — and a large 
minority, if not a positive majority, of the leading Unionists 
of Missouri. 

So far as I know, onlx- one \'irginian of the first rank 
fought for the Union — Gen. Cieorge H. Thomas — but he was 
a host within himself, the greatest soldier on the Federal 
side, for that will be the verdict of posterity after the sleight- 
of-hand ]ierforniers have done juggling the facts of history 
for political effect. 

Indeed, it is safe to say that had none of the aristocratic 
families — wrongfully so called — none of the great families, 
none of the slaveholders stood for the I'nion, Kentuckw Mis- 
souri, and Maryland would have .seceded, and if they had gone 
with the South tnianimously the Confederacy would have 
achieved its independence: but if those States had been .solidly 
for the Union, if the hou.se had not lieen hopelessly divided 
against itself in all that region, the war would not have lasted 
half so long find William H. Seward's optimistic prophecy of 
a "ninety days' picnic" would ha\-e been fulfilled. 

This brings me to the central idea of this .speech — the main 
fact — of which I never think without anger and re.sentment, 
for I believe that justice should be done, even in writing his- 
tory, though the hea\ens fall, and it is this; 

Population con.sidered. Kentuck\- and Missouri .sent more 
soldiers to the civil war than any other State and receive less 
credit for it. 

They were splendid soldiers, too. Theodore Roo.sevelt .says 
that b\- actual measurement the Keiituck\- Union soldiers were 
the finest s])eciniens of ])h\sical manhood who were in the Fed- 
eral armies: and when Jeffer.son Davis, himself a renowned 
soldier, reviewed the army at Corinth, he declared Cockrell's 
Missouri brigade to be the most magnificent soldiers his trained 
military eye had ever ga/x'd upon. 



46 Address 0/ Mr. Clark on the Acccptaiicc of tlie 

Xevertheless it is difficult to induct; extreme vSoutheniers to 
admit that the Kentucky and Missouri Confederates were good 
Confederates, tliouj;;h the Kentuckians and Missourians made 
a four years' war possible. It is e\en more difficult to induce 
extreme Northerners, whose .skins and homes and property were 
all safe durint; the war, to admit that the Unionists of Ken- 
tnck\- and Missouri deserve an\- credit, when as a matter of 
tact they prevented .secession from succeeding. 

If Lovell H. Rou.sseau had never recruited his Louisville 
Le.gion; if olil Frank Wolford and Thomas K. Bramlette had 
never established Camp Dick Robins(jn, Kentucky would have 
.seceded and the (.)hio River would have been an impas.sable 
barrier to the invading armies. 

If P'rank Bl.\ik had never captured Camp Jack.son — for it 
was Hlaik w1ii> conceived and carried out that .great strategic 
movement, and not Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, of New England, as 
the Northern war books .say — Missouri would have joined the 
Confederacy under the lead of Governor Claiborne F. Jack.son 
and Gen. Sterlin,g Price, the peerless soldier, and with her vast 
resources to connnand, Lee's soldiers would not have been 
starved and frozen inti.i a surrender. 

If the Government l)uilt monuments to soldiers in proportion 
to what the\' really accomplished for the Union cause, Frank 
Hi, .air's would tower proudly among the loftiest. Camp Jack- 
son is .slurred over with an occasional para.graph in the hi.story 
books, but it was the turning jioint in the war west of the 
Mississippi, and it was the work of Fr.\xk Bi,.\ir, the Ken- 
tuckian, the Missourian, the slave owner, the patrician, the 
leonine .soldier, the patriotic .statesman. 

Some da\' a Tacitus, Sismondi, or Macaula\- will write a 
truthful hislor\- of our civil war — the bloodiest chapter in the 
book of time — and when it is written the Kentucky and Mis- 
souri heroes, both Ihiion and Cor.federate, will i)e enrobed in 
innnortal glor\ . 



S/ir/ztiS of I'houias //. Bciilon txiid Francis /'. lilair. 47 

It is said that figures will not lie. and here thc\' arc; To 
tile Tnion armies Missouri contributed 109,111 soldiers; Ken- 
lucky. 75,760; Maryland, 46,63s; Tennessee, 31,092, and West 
\'irginia, 32,068 — making a grand total of 294,669. 

Now, suppose a case. Su])]>o.se that as the .stni was setting 
on the ,gory field of Shiloh. when Albert Sidnex' Johnston died, 
all the Kentuckians. Missonrians. and Tennesseeans had been 
suddenlx- subtracted from the Union Armv and transferred to 
the Confederate side. Can any sane man doubt what would 
have happened? As certain as fate Ulysses Simpson (rrant 
and the renniants of his ;irm\ would have been cajilured or 
driven into the Tennessee and Ueain'egard would have fattened 
his famished soldiers on the fertile prairies of Illinois and 
Indiana. All the Buells and Nelsons in Christendom could 
not have saved the silent soldier had it not been for the 
Kenluckians. Mi.ssourians. and Teiniesseeans fighting for their 
country there: and with all Grant's bulldog tenacity the history 
of \'icksl)urg, Mis.sionary Ridge, Cold Harbor, the Wilderness, 
and ApptHnattox never would have been written, for the all- 
sufficient rea.son that there would not have been an\' to write. 

Suppose another case. Suppo.se that George H. Thomas had 
gone with his State, as all his brothers in arms from \'irginia 
did. and that when Pickett made his spectacular charge :il 
Gettysburg, Tliomas had in the nick of time reenforced him 
with the 294,669 veteran Kentncki.ans, Missonrians, Mary- 
lander.s, We.st \'irginians, and Tennesseeans then fighting in 
the Union armies, can any human being fail to tniderstand 
what would have been the result? Meade's grand arnix- would 
have been ground to ])owder, Philadelphia. Baltimore, Har- 
risburg, Washington. New York would have been taken, the 
nations of Europe would have run races with each other to 
recognize the independence of the Confederacy, and more aid 
than he needed would have been freely tendered Jefferson 



48 Addrcsi of Mr. Clark on tlif Acceptance oj the 

Da\-is t(_) enable him In ix-ali/,e tile aspirations of the South 
for a separate .ijovernnicnt. 

In taking a retrospect of the conduct of the bonier States 
during the war and of how the slaveholders therein fought 
\-aliantly for their own undoing, I am forced to the conclusion 
that when Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:. 

I liave no purpose, ilirtctlx oi indirectly, to interfere witli the inslilulicm 
of slavery in the States where it exists. 1 lielieve I have no lawful ri.ylu 
to do so, anil I have no inclination to do so 

he did more for the preservation of the I'uion than was done 
bv all the speeches, great and small, delivered since the con- 
fu,sion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, for that one ileclara- 
tion held hundreds of thousands in the border States faithful to 
the Union who otherwise and naturally would have gone with 
the South. The Keutuckians and Missourians belong to that 
class who. having jiut their hands to the jjIow. do not look 
Ijack, and they fought on after the emancipation proclamation 
as l)ra\'ely and doggedly as before. 

It ma\- be that the fact that Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson 
Davis were both Keutuckians, born within a few miles of each 
other, added fuel to the flames throughout Kentticks and 
Mis.soind and wherexer the Iventuckiaus had settled in large 
nundjers. The accident of their birth in the same vicinity con- 
tril>uted to the awful tragedy the element of feud, inherent in 
the Kentucky character. 

At anv rate, Lincoln understood the Keutuckians and Mis- 
.souriaus better than any other Republican President, and to 
the day of his death the\- had a warm place in his sympathetic 
heai t. 

More than all this, the border State men fought, whatever 
their rank. 

The onl\- instance on record during the entire war ol one 
field officer killing another in battle was at Mill Spring, when 



S/i7//n's of Thomas If. Brnloii and Francis P. Blair. 49 

Gen. S])eed Smith PVy, of Kentucky, a Union soldier, shot and 
killed General ZollicofTer, commanding- a brigade of Tennessee 
Confederates. The only parallel to this sanguinary perform- 
ance in all our niilitar>- annals was the killing of Tecumseh, at 
the battle of the river Thames, by Ccjl. Richard M. Johnson, 
another Kentuckian, popularly- called "Old Dick." 

Ed Porter Thompson, of Kentucky, a Confederate captain, 
hobbled into the battle of Murfreesboro on his crutches, and for 
two days fought side b\- side with those pos.sessing the soundest 
and most .stalwart legs, thereby rivaling the far-resotmding feats 
of Charles XII of Sweden at Pultowa and Gen. Joseph Wheeler 
at Santiago of being carried into battle upon a .stretcher. 

Out of my own constituents, P. Wells, is the only soldier, 
living or dead, so far as history tells, tliat ever had a wooden 
leg shot off in battle, for the reason, perhaps, that he is the 
only soldier that ever went into battle with a wooden leg. He 
survived his wound to become a wealth\' and enthusiastic 
■Populist. 

In Mis.souri the war was waged with unspeakable bitterness, 
sometimes with inhuman cruelty. It was fought by men in 
single combat, in squads, in companies, in regiments, in great 
annies, in the open, in fortified towns, and in ambu.sh, under 
the Stars and Stripes, under the Stars and Bars, and under the 
black flag. The arch fiend him.self .seems to have been on the 
field in person, inspiring, directing, commanding. I'p in north 
Missouri Gen. John McNeil took 12 innocent men out and shot 
them in cold lilood, because it was supposed that some bush- 
whacker had killed a Union man. That is known in local 
history as "the Palmyra ma.ssacre," and has "damned" J(-)hn 
McXeil " to everlasting fame." It turned out afterwards that 
the Union man was still alive, and .so the 12 men had died in 
vain — even according to the hard rule of lex talionis. 
S. Doc. 456 4 



50 Address of Mr. Chirk on llic Acceptaiia- of the 

At Centralia one clay a Wabash train containing more than 
30 Union soldiers was captured by Bill Anderson, a guerrilla 
chief, who had sustained some grievous personal injur\- at the 
hands of the Unionists, and whose blood some subtle mental 
alchemy had converted into gall. He deliberately took them 
out and shot them ever\' one, as though they had been so many 
wolves. 

Having completed that gory job, he marched out to a skirt 
of timber, about a mile from town, and camped at the foot of 
a long, gentle prairie slope. Shortly after a certain Colonel 
Johnson, with a body of Union cavalry, followed him and took 
position on the ridge of the prairie. The sight of them made 
Anderson wild with delight and whetted his appetite for blood; 
so he mounted his 80 men, the most superli horsemen in the 
world, who, with bridle reins between their teeth and a navy 
revolver in each hand, rode up on Johnson's 160 men, whom 
he had foolishly dismounted, and, firing to right and left, killed 
143 of them, and would have killed the other 17 if they could 
have l)een caught. Only one man was taken alive, and he badl)' 
wounded, the legend in the neighborhood lieing that he saved 
himself by giving the Ma.sonic sign of distress. 

Such are .samples of the civil war in Missouri and KeiUucky. 

The sur\-ivors of those cruel days. Union and Confederate, 
are now living side by side, cultivating a.ssiduously the arts of 
peace in the imperial Commonwealth of Mis.souri — the most 
delectable place for human habitation beneath the stars. 

.\ PIOXKKR PEACEMAKER. 

Lately we have heard a vast deal of eloquence about a 
reunited couiUry. Thirty-two years after Appomattox men 
are accounted orators, statesmen, and philanthropists because 
they grandilocjuently declare that at last the time has arrived 



Statues of Thomas H. Benton and Francis P. Blair. 51 

to bury the animosities of the civil war in a jjrave upon whose 
lieadstone shall be inscribed, "No Resurrection.'" I would not 
detract even in the estimation of a hair from the fame of these 
eleventh-hour pacificators. I humbly and fervently thank 
Almighty God that the country is reunited. 

When I look into the faces of my little children, my heart 
swells with ineffable pride to think that tliey are citizens of this 
great Republic, one and indivisil)le, which is destined not for 
a dav, but for all time, and whicli will be the crowning glory 
and dominating influence of all the centuries yet to be. But if 
we applaud these ex post facto peacemakers and shed tears of 
joy over their belated pathos, what shall be our meed of praise, 
the measure of our gratitude, the manifestation of our admira- 
tion, the expres.sion of our love for Fk.\nk Bl.vir, the magnifi- 
cent Missourian, the splendid American, who, with his military 
laurels fre.sh upon him, within a few days after Lee surren- 
dered, returned to his State, which had been ravaged by fire 
and sword, holding aloft the olive branch, proclaiming to the 
world that there were no rebels any more, that his fellow-citi- 
zens who had fought for the South were entitled to equal 
respect and equal rights with other citizens, and that real peace 
mtist "tinkle on the shepherd's bells and sing among the 
reapers" of Mi.s.souri? He took the ragged and defeated Con- 
federates by the hand and, in the words of Abraham to Lot, 
said, " We be brethren." 

The truly brave, 
When thcv behold llie brave oppressed with odds, 
.\re touched with a desire to shield and save. 

[Applause.] 

It seems to me that the very angels in heaven, looking down 
with approving eyes upon his magnanimous conduct, must 
have sung, in full chorus, the song of nineteen hundred years 
ago, "On earth, peace; good will toward men." 



52 Address of Mr. Clark on tlic Acceptance of tlie 

King Soli mil )n says: 

To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under 
heaven: A time to kill, and a time to heal. 

In the time for killing, Frank Blair was one of the must 
persistent fighters. When the time for healing came, he was 
one of the first to ponr the balm of consolation into bruised 
hearts and to Ijind np the nation's wounds. 

In the Army he was one of the favorite lieutenants of Ulysses 
Sirap.son Grant, who with knightly honor resolutely and coiir- 
ageonsly kept his plighted faith to Lee, thereby preventing an 
aftermath of death at the very thought of which the world 
grows pale. 

In the fierce and all-pervading light of history, which beats 
not upon thrones alone, but upon all high places as well, 
Blair will stand side by .side with the invincil.)le soldier who 
.said, "Let tis have peace" — the noblest words that ever fell 
from martial lips. 



S/a/iii's of Tlionias H. luiiloii and Francis P. I! /air. 53 



Address of Mr. Lloyd, of Missouri.^ 

Mr. Speaker, Missouri presents to-day to the Congress of the 
United States statues of two of her honored dead and asks that 
they may be received and placed in Statuary Hall in this Capitol 
as a peniKuient memorial not only of her devotion to their 
memory, but in recognition of the fact that few men have 
accomplished more for this nation than they have done. 

The cold marble, fashioned through .skill and energy to repre- 
.sent the bod\- of the living nr the dead, is one of the wonderful 
achievements of the ages. Two e.xcellent evidences of perfec- 
tion in this art are presented here to-day. It was never my 
privilege to see either of the extraordinary characters thus 
shown in statuary form, but the names of Benton and Hu.mk 
are household words in Missouri, and are recognized anywhere 
as the names of prominent characters in national history. 

It is claimed by tho.se who should know that the.se statues 
are lifelike; but, sir, these inanimate representations, perfect as 
they may be, have not the vital force of the living being, and 
but sers'e to show the weakness of man in his efforts to repro- 
duce that from which the providence of God has withdrawn the 
breath of life. 

Among the great men of this nation who have had part in its 
achievements, who have secured place in the hearts of their 
countrj'nien, and who have left indelible impress for good, few 
have ever been entitled to greater honor and respect than 
Thom.'^.s H. Be.nton and Fk.\.ncis P. Bl.vik, jr. 

Mi.ssouri does not present these emblems in stone .simply as 
matter of form — that it may have the honor of representation 
in j-ouder Statuary Hall, once the National Hou.se of Repre- 
sentatives — but that it may discharge a duty in .showing appre- 
ciation of its honored dead. It would teach its vouth to cherish 



54 .-hMrrss o/'.l/r. Llnyd ou iJic Acccplaiice of tlic 

the iiieniory of those who have hnilt up its institutions and 
given the State such iiigh jilace. It would remind them to 
look with admiration upon the good deeds of its great men, 
and to ever show respect to the dead whose lives were spent in 
successful achievement for their country's honor and de\'elop- 
nient. 

It is not my purpose to contrast the characters of Blair and 
Benton. I have not one word to say in disparagement of 
either, but it is understood that my remarks shall be directed 
mainly to the statue of Colonel Benton, as others will pay the 
tribute to General Blair which his distinguished sers'ices and 
personal character so richly deserve. 

Thomas Hart Benton was born in the last year of that 
eventful period in national history, the Revolutionary war, 
within two months of the l)irth of Daniel Webster. His 
birthplace was near Hillsboro, in Orange County, N. C. His 
ancestors were among the leaders of the Revolution ci 1775, 
and contributed largely in every way to the service of their 
country. Col. Jesse Benton, his father, was a gentleman of 
excellent character and a lawyer of recognized ability. His 
mother was Ann Gooch, of the Gooch family of Virginia. A 
lady of strong and resolute character, .she possessed unusual 
mental endowment, and her literary acquirements were good 
for the period. At the age of 8 \-ears it was Mr. Benton',s 
mi.sfortune to lose his father, he being the eldest of several 
children left in the care of the mother. While he obtained 
his education, in the mcjst part, in ])rivate schools, he al.so 
spent some time at the Universit>' of North Carolina, at Chapel 
Hill, though he did not graduate from the institution. 

But few years elapsed after his father's death until his 
mother, with her children, moved to Tennessee and lived upon 
a large landed estate which had been left h\ her husband. vShe 



S/a/iics of' Thomas H. /iiii/on and Francis P. Blair. 55 

succeeded well in the development of the estate an<l in the 
acquisition of i)roperty, considering the fact that they were on 
the frontier, or nearly so, of civilization. He studied law. hut 
in the meantime taught in a small school on Duck Creek, near 
Franklin, in that State. He was admitted to the bar at Frank- 
lin, the home of the present di.stinguished Representative from 
that district [Mr. Cox] , and there began the practice of his 
profession. Shortly afterwards he was elected to the legis- 
lature of that State and distinguished himself in his efforts 
to secure the jiassage of two bills, one for the reform of the 
judicial .system and the other in which the same right of trial 
by jury was given to slaves as to white men. 

At the close of this service he moved to Nashville, the 
beautiful capital of that State, near the attractive home of 
his friend and admirer. Gen. Andrew Jackson, afterwards 
Pre.sident Jackson. This home, known as the Hermitage, is 
carefully preserved up to the present time and is about 12 
miles di.stant from Nashville. General Jackson took an active 
interest in Mr. Bp:nton and a.ssi.sted him very greatly in 
securing po.sition at the bar. 

From Foote's Bench and Bar of the .South and Southwest we 
learn that Mr. Bicnto.v formed a partnership for the practice of 
the law at Nashville with the late O. B. Hayes, a native of 
Massachusetts, of liberal education and more than ordinary 
ability. 

In the war of 1.S12 young Bento.n was General Jackson's aid- 
de-camj) for a short time. He also raised a regiment of vol- 
luiteers, but had no opportunity to engage in actual warfare. 
But no one doubts his courage or his ability, if opportunity had 
come to him, to meet an enemy on the field of battle. In i!^i3 
he was appointed a lieutenant-colonel in the United States 
Armv bv President Madison. He at once started to Canada, 



56 Address of Mr. Lloyd on tJic Acceptance of tlic 

but on liis way learned that peace had been declared, and, 
returning, he resigned his commission. Thus ended a short 
but willing service, for no man of his day was more patriotic, 
antl none braver could be found. The laurels which come 
from victorious conflict could iKJt be claimed for him, l)Ut his 
devotion to his country is fully shown by his voluntar\- offer 
to assist it. 

In 18 1 5 he took up his residence in vSt. Louis and began the 
practice of law. On account of his integrity, legal knowledge, 
energy, and devotion to the cause of his clients, he .soon built 
up a good practice. He became coiniected during that time 
with a newspaper at St. Louis, which gave him opportunity to 
reach the ])eople. He advocated vigorou.sly such matters as he 
believed were for the interests of the growing West. He made 
a strong fight in fa\-or of the admi.ssion of Missouri to the 
Union notwithstanding her slavery constitution. The stand 
taken in this matter had more to do than any one thing, ])er- 
haps, in giving him the prominence which .secured him the 
distinguished honor of Ijeing one of the first two Senators 
elected by that vState in the year iSjo. 

Sir, we now apj)roach the .greater work of Colonel Ben'Tox — 
that Ijroad field of labor in which he wrought so mightily for 
inankini.1. The results achieved here will li\e in American 
history long after the enduring statue shall have become 
clouded with age. I have not the time to elaborate on his 
great service as a public servant, and can only, in a verv 
general way, refer to his labors and to a few of the vital 
questions which engaged his attention. He went into the 
Senate as a representative of the W'est and Western sentiment. 
He could hardly be clas.sed as belonging to either the North 
or the .South at any jieriod in his history, for while he was 
himself a slave owner he was an ardent Union man, and was 



S/a//tcs of Thautas H. Benton and Francis P. Blair. 57 

chiefly concerned that the flag of his country should ever 
wave over a united people. He condemned the Hartford 
convention in its disunion sentiment, and ever regarded his 
country as more important than any part of it. 

Colonel Bkxtox was fully imlnied with the political teach- 
ings of Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic school 
of statesmanship, and was the very impersonation of the genius 
of the West, where these theories had taken their deepest root. 
He knew better than anyone who preceded him its needs, its 
capabilities, and its destinies. He devoted himself with all 
of his unusual powers of body and mind to the important 
duty of supplying these wants, showing its capabilities, and 
in preparing the way for its future development. He 
sought to expose to public gaze the vicious legislation that 
so hampered its growth and chained its giant energies. 

This unfortunate condition resulted in part from ignorance 
and largeh- from that local, selfish cla.ss interest which fixes 
itself upon every object from which it may draw strength. He 
insisted that the prosperity of the West would be shared by 
everv other section. He demanded the repeal of these laws 
bv which her lands were withheld from cultivation and .settle- 
ment that they might be purcha.sed and controlled by specu- 
lators; bv which her mines and saline lands were leased out 
to rich syndicates without gain to anyone, and liy which the 
necessaries of life were taxed to pay bounties to .some losing 
trade in another section. He believeil in the fundamental doc- 
trine of equality before the law. He resolved to attack and 
overthrow these monsters of evil because Wvty were in opposi- 
tion to that basic principle of the Republic. 

The cultivation of the .soil is the source of all national pros- 
perity; it gives comfort and independence to the people, and 
is that upon which the nation must draw for its revenue, 



58 Address of Mr. Lloyd on the Acceptance of the 

strength, and stability. At the time of Colonel Benton's 
entry into politics the minimum price for public lands was $2 
per acre; but none could be bought at that sum until it had 
first been exposed at public sales to the highest bidder and 
rejected. The result naturally was that speculators bought the 
be.st lands and held them up for higher prices, and none but 
refu.se lands could be bought by the actual settlers at the mini- 
mum Government price. 

No one could go on public lands before .sale, for he was then 
treated as a trespasser and was likely to be ejected by military 
authority. The mineral and saline lands were held by monop- 
olists, so that the poor and .struggling pioneer had but little 
chance in the race of life. No scheme could have been devised 
better calculated to keep the growth of the country- in check 
or to prevent the settlement and cultivation of it. 

Colonel Benton, the first great statesman of the West — the 
only one of his time west of the Mississippi River — who was 
classed with Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, championed early in 
his eventful career the cause of the people, and sought the 
enactment of such laws as would .secure the development of 
the country whose oppres.sion he deplored and whose interests 
were his own. He believed that preemption, graduation, and 
homestead would cause this neglected portion of the vast 
domain to be dotted over with homes of useful, industrious, and 
happy people, who would bring to the bar of their country's 
wealth the fruits of the possibilities of that matchless region, 
and that soon after its adoption the whole nation would be 
a.stonished at its rapid development, and would rejoice in its 
unexpected achievement. 

He accordingly introduced a liill which provided for the right 
of preemption to the actual .settler at the mininuun price, the 
reduction of the price of the land, the graduation of the prices 



S/a/t/es of Tliomas //. Benton and Francis P. Blair. 59 

of refuse lauds in proportion to the time they had been in the 
market, and the donation of homesteads to im])overishe(l hut 
industrious persons who would cultivate the land for a given 
period. He beijan this battle for the emancipation of the 
farmer and laborer of that section almost alone. He renewed 
hi.s bills for these purposes with each succeeding Congress, and 
developed the whole subject by throwing upon it the calcium 
light of truth with that unequaled industry and energy for 
which he was distinguished above all public men. 

He reproduced these speeches in the newspaper and tipon 
the rostrum, calling the people's attention to the importance 
of the proposed legislation and hoping that they would compel 
Congress to adopt his measures. The contest was long and 
arduous: it was met with the most determined opposition. His 
plans were thwarted from time to time by schemes for the 
distribution of the lands or the proceeds of their sale among 
the States, which held out a glittering argument of greed and 
gain as a pecuniary incentive to deny the.se great measures of 
justice to the undeveloped West. But defeat and delaj- left 
him undaunted, and with greater determination and earnest- 
ness he pressed the battle, gaining strength for his cause with 
each successive engagement. A single quotation from one of 
his speeches will serve to show the scope of his reasoning: 

The example of all nations, ancient and modern, republican and mon- 
archical, is in favor of giving lands in parcels suitable to their want.s to 
meritorious cultivators. There is not an instance upon earth, except that 
of our own Federal (government, which tnade merchandise of land to it.s 
own citizens, exacted the highest price it could obtain, and refused to 
suffer the country to be settled until it was paid for. The promised land 
was divided among the children of Israel. All the Atlantic States, when 
British colonies, were settled upon gratuitous donations or nominal sales. 

Kentucky and Tennessee were chiefly settled in the same waj\ The two 
Floridas and Upper and Lower Louisiana were gratuitously distributed by 
the kings of Spain to settlers, in quantities adapted to their means of 
cultivation, and with the whole vacant domain to .select from, according 



6o Address of Mr. Lloyd o)i tlic Acccpta)U'c of the 

to their pleasure. Mr. Burke, in his great argument in the British Par- 
liament upon the sale of the Crown lands, said he considered the revenue 
derived from the sale of such lands as a trifle of no account compared 
to the amount of the revenue derivable from the same lands through 
their settlement and cultivation. 

Colonel Benton's advanced and statesmanlike Anews finally 
took hold upon the country. They were adopted b\- other 
public men, who took up the cau.se and assisted in its work, 
while the people rallied to his support. General Jackson and 
l\Ir. Van Buren, in their nie.s.sages to Congress on these ques- 
tions, embodied his ideas in recommendations. Many of the 
States embraced his measures, and in many ways public interest 
was arou.sed until their pa.ssage was sectired. The great West, 
in its development of this age, is the monument to the enact- 
ment of that and other beneficent measures in which he took 
prominent part. He who holds his farm by preemption right 
to-day, or through the graduation laws, or has been enabled to 
make a happy home for himself and family through the home- 
stead enactments, should accord to Colonel Benton the meed 
of praise for securing these legal rights. It is no exaggerated 
eulogy to attribute to him the first place among those who 
wrought so well as to make possible the development of the 
West and to show its colossal greatness. 

Conspictiotis among these efforts at reform and legislation for 
the masses was the overthrow of the .salt tax. This article, so 
vital to our well-being, almo.st as necessary as the water we 
drink, was enormously taxed in order to pay a bounty to an 
tniimportant interest in New England. When once these cla.ss 
interests have secured footing, their tenacity is so great that it 
becomes almost impossible to make them release their hold. 
This tax was onerous and distressing to the whole country, 
but especially .so to the West. Colonel Benton made war 
upon it. It was a monopoly, seizing an object of universal 



S/(i/ites of Thomas II. Ben /on and Fronds P. Blair, 6r 

necessity and taxing' it for the benefit of the few. As such, 
he hated it; he wrote and spoke against it until the whole 
country was aroused. He portrayed what would be the result 
of class legislation in an alarming manner; but little, however, 
did he realize, with all his gifted forethought, what inlluence 
monopoly, trusts, and classes would have upon the vital ener- 
gies of the country he loved so well at the close of the nine- 
teenth century. 

His power in speech was now universally recognized. In 
Bungay's Offhand Takings of Noticeable Men of Our Age, he 
said of Colonel Bentox: 

As a speaker he is more argumentative than eloquent, more pliilo- 
sophical than poetical; Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, and Cass were 
to the United States Senate what the five senses are to the human 
system. 

In Bateman's Biographies of Distinguished National Men it 

is said: 

Mr. Benton was distinguished by great learning, an iron will, jjractical 
mind, and strong memory. His speeches when written were firmly fixed 
in his mind, so that he could repeat them accurately in public without 
the manuscript. He was industrious, deterniineil, and unyielding, with 
pockets overflowing with statistics, and his head full of historical lore. 

In biographical sketches found in the United States Demo- 
cratic Review for the year 1S58 one of Colonel Benton's 
as.sociates in the Senate relates an incident which shows the 
effects of his speeches in a very forceful wa>-. 

A subject of some interest had been under di.scussion for 
several days. At the commt^ncenient of the debate Mr. Claj' 
had spoken against the measure. Prior to the taking of the 
vote Mr. Benton got the floor and sjioke with unusual eflect 
for more than an hour, his argument being mainly a reply to 
the speech of Mr. Clay. To the surjirise of the whole Senate, 
when the vote was taken Mr. Clay voted for the bill, and thus 
secured its passage. Mr. Clay explained the rea.son of this 



62 Address of Mr. Lloyd on llic Acceptance of tlie 

apparent inconsistency between his speecli and vote by saying 
that he "could not help it;" that Colonel Benton had con- 
vinced him that the \-ie\v he had taken was wrong, not so 
much from his reasoning as from something connected with 
his speech, but what that .something was he could not ex])lain. 
It is said that Mr. Clay did not stand alone in this singularit>', 
for Mr. Webster had made a like remark as to the effect of 
Benton's speeches upon him.self. 

His efforts to overthrow bank paper was the climax, perhaps, 
of his energy and ability. The speeches he made on that .sub- 
ject were the best and strongest he ever made. He was Presi- 
dent Jackson's support in that great contest which liberated 
the Government of the people from the thraldom of the bank. 
He was the mouthpiece of the people and the Administration. 
Pitted again.st him were Webster and Clay, whose eloquence 
always swayed the vSenate and the nation. Accordingly the 
success of Colonel Benton's cau.se, when we consider the 
charm of their oratory and the laeauty and power of expres- 
sion which characterized all that fell from the lips of these 
illustrious men, can hardly lie accounted for except through 
his own power of speech and the righteousness of the cause 
which he so clearly demonstrated and .so ably upheld. 

Colonel Benton was impressed with the idea that the pos- 
sessions of the Government .should extend from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean. He gloried in the genius of Jeffer.son in 
securing the acquisition of what was known as the Louisiana 
purchase. When Texas was exchanged for Florida by the 
treaty of 1819 and the joint occupation of Oregon was conceded 
to Great Britain in 1820, Colonel Benton raised his voice 
against it, and though others could not see the necessity for 
these regions, Colonel Benton's prophetic vision already saw 



S/a/urs of Thou/as If. Bcitloii and Francis P. li/air. 63 

them jK-opled with vast cities, iiiarkiTi>; the highway of the 

world's commerce. He condemned the statesmen who were 

thns wiUing to set a hmit to the honndaries of the country 

liecause lhe\- could not foresee the future which would fdl 

them with a teeming- jiopulation, and in that connection used 

these remarkable words: 

The magnificent valley of the ilississippi is ours, with all its fountain 
springs and floods, and woe to the statesman who shall undertake to sur- 
render one drop of its water or one inch of its soil to any foreign power. 

He renounced the treaty for the joint occupation of Oregon 
with the British and urged the policy of planting it with an 
American colony. He made himself familiar with all that 
country lying between the Missis.sippi and the Pacific Ocean. 
The hunters and trappers, fur traders, Indian agents, Army 
officers, and others who visited the great West made their 
headquarters and place of outfit at St. Louis. He talked with 
all the.se, entertained them at his home, and was their friend. 
He knew more of the country than those who had .spent years 
in it, becau.se he sought to kuow everything that was known 
by all who had been there. 

He and his colleague, Dr. Linn, constantly urged the planting 
of an American colony in the place of that founded by John 
Jacob Astor. They sought to induce colonists, by donations 
of land and military protection on the route and in the Ter- 
ritory, to settle in the then far-off land. These measures 
finally rewarded their efforts; the colony was planted, the 
joint occupation by the British terminated by treaty, the 
route to the di.stant Oregon explored by scientific officers, 
and the results have been promulgated. Lieutenant Fremont, 
at that time an officer of engineers in the United States Army, 
a son-in-law of Colonel Benton, had much to do with these 



64 .liM/'Css of Mr. Lloyd on tltc Acccp/ancc of tltc 

explorations and in the additions made to science and geograph- 
ical knowledge. Lieutenant Fremont for years traveled over 
the West, and the intimate relation existing between him and 
Colonel Benton was such that the early settlers of all the 
Western country learned to feel that their chief advocate at 
the national capital was Colonel Benton. 

There are a number of other matters in Colonel Benton's 
official career to which I should refer did not limited time 
prevent. I wish, however, to call attention to his views on 
the slavery question. It was his belief that there was a settled 
plan and determination on the part of certain eminent leaders 
to bring about a separation of the States. He repeatedly 
expres.sed this belief, and in the contest in 1S50, when he 
was a candidate for the sixth time for the position which 
he had filled with so nuich credit, his views on the slavery 
question were an element in the campaign, and were the cause, 
as mo.st persons believe, of his defeat. The bitter experience 
of that deadly strife, of which his rejection for the Senate 
was one of the opening scenes, may well remind us of the 
warning he uttered in vain, and of the sacrifices he made of 
him.self to save his State and country. 

Even those to whom his fiery zeal in defense of the endan- 
gered Union gave offense will not now fail to honor the noble 
magnanimity and lofty patriotism which prompted him to make 
the contest. Personal feeling ran high at that time in Mis- 
souri. After his defeat the people of his adopted city elected 
him to the House of Representatives, and when some of his 
friends were rejoicing over his victory in this contest he used 
these words, "Exaltation, my friend, is natural, but moderation 
is the ornament of victory." There never was a time when 
he was not devoted to his country. He was anxious that futu- 
rity should find it united and the States harmoniously living 
for the development of their common interests. 



Stat7tcs of T/ioiims If. Bcittnii am-/ Francis P. n/a/r. 65 

He served but om.- terin in tlu- House of Representatives; he 
was defeated for reelection. In 1856 he was a candidate for 
governor. On account of division in his own party he was 
defeated. From the time he went out of Congress until his 
death he devoted himself to literar\- work, jirejxiring a very 
valuable publication known as " Thirt>' Years in Congress," 
which covered the period from 1S20 to 1850. He presented 
in this work a connected narrative of the time from Adams 
to Pierce, and dealt largely with the .secret jiolitical history 
of that period. He then tmdertook the task of abridging the 
debates of Congress from the foundation of the Government. 
This work he was just completing when death came to him. 
It has since been published, and is a very valuable compilation 
of about fifteen volumes. 

While Colonel -Benton was a man of exalted patriotism, he 
was a man of great passion as well. Indeed, his animosities 
showed him unrelenting, though later in life he became for- 
giving, Mr, Webster is reported in Harvey's Reminiscences 
and Anecdotes to have said that Colonel Kknton and he never 
spoke to each (sther for several years, but that he came to him 
one day and told him, with tears in his eyes, of Ijeing on board 
the J'rincitoii in the \'ery best ])o.sition to see the experiment 
of (lischargin,g her guns. 

Some one in the midst of the great thron,g touched him and 
catised him to move his position. Shortly after the explosion 
came, and the man was killed who stood where he I'.ad. 
Colonel Benton .said that it .seemed to him that the touch was 
the hand of the Almi,ght\- .stretched down to draw him away 
from the place of instantaneous death. This circumstance 
changed the whole current of his life. He was now a different 
man and wanted to be at peace with everyone, and for that 
purpose he visited Webster. He said, "Let us bur\ the 
S. Doc. 456 5 



66 . IMn-ss of Mr. Lloyd on tJic Acceptance of the 

hatchet." Webster accepted the offer, and they were ever 
afterwards the best of friends. 

Mr. Webster relates another incident, which is found in the 
.same book, pecuharl\' interesting; and illustrative of Colonel 
Benton's relenting.; spirit. John Wilson, of St. Louis, came 
to see Mr. Webster on a matter of business at his home in 
Washington. Mr. Wilson was a lawyer of extensive practice 
and of good talent, a man of violent prejudices and temper, 
who was ever in open oppo.sition to the course of Colonel 
Benton. It was notorious in St. Louis that when Colonel 
Benton went on the stump John Wilson would be there to 
meet him and to abu.se him in the strongest terms; Mr. Benton 
would return the fire. 

Mr. Webster had not .seen Mr. Wilson for man^- years, but 
he came to him now prematurely old, with fortune wrecked, 
and told him of his desire to emigrate to California for his 
faniih's sake. As far as he was concerned, poverty mattered 
not, but on account of those dear to him he wished to tr\- and 
mend his fortunes. He therefore desired a letter to .some one 
in California which would say that Webster knew him to be a 
respectable ])er,son worthy of confidence. Webster said he 
knew no one in California. 

Mr. Wilson insisted that this would make uo difference, as 
everybody would know him and that therefore a certificate 
from him would be the most valuable testimonial he could 
have. Wel)ster .said he would write one with pleasure, but 
suggested that Colonel BenTon, who almost owns California, 
could give a letter to Fremont and others that would be of 
great benefit to him. Wilson looked at Webster in astonish- 
ment and said he would not speak to Benton, "No, not if it 
were to save the life of e\-ery member of my famih'; " that the 



Sta/itcs of Thomas If. Bciitoti nud frauds /'. lUair. 67 

thought of it made him shudder; that he feh iiidignaiu at its 

nieiition, since Welister knew that they were unfriendl\ . Mr. 

Webster rephed that hr understood the situation, and, turning 

to his desk, wrote tile following note to Mr. Rk.n'Ton; 

r)K.\R Sir; I am well aware of llie di.sputes, personal and iiolitical, 
which have taken place between your.self and the bearer of this note, 
Mr. John Wilson. Hnt he is now i>lil, and is going to California and 
needs a letter of recommendation. Vou know everj'body, an<l a letter 
from vou would do him good. I have assured Mr. Wilson that it would 
give vou more pleasure to forget what has passed between yon and him 
and to give him a letter that will rlo him good than it will him to receive 
it. I am going to persuade him to carry you this note. 

Webster then read the note to Wilson, who promptly refused 
to carr\' it. After long and determined persistence on Webster's 
p.irt, Wilson softened down .and agreed to lea\-e the letter at the 
door. He told Webster afterwards that he took the note and 
delivered it, with his card, to Benton's .servant at the door, 
and rushed to his apartments. To his great astonishment, in 
a \'ery few moments a note arrived from Colonel I5K.\Tt).\ 
acknowledging the receijit of the card and note, and stating 
that Mrs. Benton and he would have much ideasnre in receiv- 
ing Mr. Wilson at breakfast at 9 o'clock ne.xt morning. They 
would wait breakfast for him and no answer was expected. 
Wilson told Webster afterwards that it so worried him that 
he lay awake that night thinking of it, and in the morning 
felt as a man with a sentence of death jiassed u])on him, who 
had been called by the turnkey to his last breakfast. 

Making his toilet, with great hesitation he went to Colonel 
Benton's house. He rang the doorbell, but instead of the 
.ser\-ant the Colonel him.self came to the door. Taking Wil- 
son cordially by both hands, he .said: "Wilson, I am delighted 
to .see you: this is the happiest meeting I h:ive had for twenty 
years. Webster has done the kindest thing he ever <lid in his 



68 Address ofMr. Lloyd on tlic Acceptance of the 

life." Proceeding' at once to the dining room, he was pre- 
sented to Mrs. Benton, and after a few kind words, BenTOX 
remarked: "Von and I, Wilson, ha\-e lieen quarreling on the 
stuni]) for twenty-five years. We have Ijeen calling each 
other hard names, but really with no want of nuitual respect 
and confidence. It has been a foolish political fight, and let's 
wipe it out of mind. E\'er\'thing that I liave said about you 
I ask pardon for." Wilson said the>' both cried, he asked 
Benton'.s pardon, and they were good friends. Colonel Bkn- 
TON had meantime prepared a number of letters to persons 
whom he knew in California, in which lie cc.immanded them to 
show Mr. Wilson every favor within their jwwer. 

It is not my purpose to refer to acts which the friends of 
Colonel Be.n'Tox would blot from memor\-, nur to deeds which 
could bring the tinge of remorse. I would cover his imper- 
fections with the mantle of charity, but would imprint in 
burning letters, if I could, his patriotism, energ}-, industry, 
honest >■, and devotion to the right as qualities worthy of 
enuilation. Nor would my remarks be comjilete did I not 
refer to that greatest of his \irtues, which showed itself in 
the devotion and affection he exhiliitcd toward his family. 

In 1844 his wife suffered a stroke of ])aralysis. from which 
she never fully recovered. I*"rom thai time Colonel Benton 
was never known to go to any place of festivity or amuse- 
ment, but de\'oted his leisure hours to trying t(j make com- 
fortable, jileasant, and hap])\' the loved one so sorely afflicted. 
No man, it is said, ever regarded his family with more tender 
solicitude than did he. In this are evinced, perhaps, the true 
qualities of the man as much as in anxthing occurring in the 
days of his e\entful histor\'. Mrs. Benton, in the language 
of another, "was the pride and glory of his young ambition, 
the .sweet ornament of his mature fame, and the best love of 



Statues of T/ionias H. Btiiloit uud Francis P. Blair. 69 

his ripened age." These are the completing qnalities which 

enable us to know him who was — 

Lofty an<l sour to tht-ni that loved him not. 

But to those men that sought him sweet as summer. 

Colonel Bextox died April 10. 1.S5.S. leaving as his la.st 

audible words "I am comfortable and content." On the day 

of his bitrial all l>iisiness in St. Louis was suspended, every 

court adjourned, and it is said that 40,000 people were present 

and .sought to pay their last trilnite of respect. Before the 

adjounnnent of the United States circuit court for the district 

of Missouri on that day, at the announcement of the burial of 

Colonel Bextox, Judge Wells, of that court, said: 

I have heard with great sen.sibihty of the death of Colonel Bknton, one 
of the oldest members of this bar. He was a man who devoted nearly all 
his life to the service of this State. Colonel Kextox and myself became 
acquainted about forty years ago, and through all that time there was an 
undeviating friendship between us. It is a great mistake to suppose that 
a difference of opinion would <listurb the friendship entered into by Colonel 
Benton. It was only when he supposed that he received a personal affront, 
or that such was intended, that he ever deviated from it. 

He was a man of great talents, great energy, and indomitable will. He 
devoted all those great qualities not to his own interest, but to the interest 
of the Union and to this State. I have it from the highest authority that, 
to remain in this State and to devote his services to her interests, he refused 
the highest gifts in the power of the fnited States Government to bestow. 
He refused the office of Chief Justice of the United Stales; he refused being 
put in nomination for Vice-President and other hi.gh offices, all througli a 
desire to serve this State. .\s a father, as a husbami, and in all the domes- 
tic relations, he was a model. This I know personall}-, as I was intimate 
in his family for several months. His private and domestic ties were only 
second to his public duties. He was devoted to the prosperity of this State 
and to the glory and perpetuity of our Union. 

The following eloquent tribute to Colonel Bkxtox is taken 

from the is.sue of one of the St. Louis jiajjcrs on the day of 

the interment : 

Greatness is ended. 
An un.substantial pageant all; 
Droop o'er the scene the funeral pall. 

Weave the cj^press for the bier of the departed; gather the burial cor- 
tege to lay his body within its final home; summon fitting words of 



70 Address of .}/r. FJovd on tlte Acceptance of tlic 

eulogy to voice the sorrow of those who knew him in life and mourn 
him in death. 

For this day, amid the drooping of banners, the low wail of martial 
music, and the multitudinous concourse of our citizens the solemn words 
"dust to dust, anil ashes to ashes" will be spoken over the remains of 
Thomas H. Benton, a statesman without peer, a patriot without price. 
Let us deal gently with his errors, remember his labor, and euibalm his 
virtues. In his public services and in his private attachments, in his 
arduous labor and in his majestic death, he had earned an abiding 
place in the memory i>f tlie American people, whil.st his name will lie 
emblazoned more in the future than in the present as one of the most 
illustrious of those who gave su nuich of renown to the deliberations of 
our National Council. 

Missottri is proud of her honored dead. She rejoice.s in the 
achievements of her sons. Many of her names are written 
high on the mount of fame. These two are not alone the 
object of her a(hniration. In statesmanship many others are 
registered near the to]) of the scroll of honor; in legal attain- 
ment she ranks well in the si.sterhood of States; in educational 
advantages she is seldom stirpassed, and in natural resources is 
without a peer. 

Aside from these advantages, the chief glory of the Mis- 
sottrian is in the honor and integrity of his citizenship 
Charged with heing border ruffian liy those who do not unde 
.stand the character of her people, with being outlaws bj- tho.sc 
who have no knowledge of their morality, with being uncouth 
and illiterate by those who have not learned of the education 
and refinement of her sons and daughters, she stands withotit 
a stiperior in the galaxy of Jstates in the rectitude of her 
intentions. This great State l.>rings to you to-day all that she 
has the power to do in honoring the dead and humbly asks 
that the.se chiseled emblems, representing her sons, .shall find 
suitable place in that apartment fixed by law for that purpose, 
that, as the ^■ears roll on, it will be observed that she is not 



Statues o/T/ionias H. Urn ton and Francis P. Blair. 71 

forgetful in cherishing the memory of those who ha\-e wrought 
so nobly for her welfare. 

Mr. Bland. Mr. Speaker, I ask for the adoption of the reso- 
lution. 

The Speakek pro tempore (Mr. Coiniolly). The (juestion is 
on agreeing to the resolution offered by the gentleman from 
Missouri [Mr. Bland]. 

The resolution was agreed to. 



ACCEPTANCE OF THE STATUES OF THOMAS 
H. BEXTON AM) FRANCIS P. BLAIR. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



MAY 19, 1900. 

Mr. CoCKRELL. Mr. President, in pursuance of the notice 
heretofore given, I present a letter from the governor of the 
State of Missouri, which I ask may be read by the Secretary. 

The President pro tempore. The -Secretary will read as 
requested. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

To the Senate and House 0/ Repirseulalizvs. iras/iv/o-Zoii. P. ('. 

Gentlemen : In the year 1S95 the sfeneral assembly of the State of 
Missouri passed an act making an ajipropriation to have statues made 
of Thom.\s H. Benton and Francis I'. Hi,.\ir, to be placed in Statuary 
Hall, in the Capitol at Washington. In the act referred to. William J. 
Stone, Odin Guitar, Peter L. Foy, B. H. Cahoon, O. H. S; encer, and James 
H. Birch were constituted a commission to have the statues made and 
properly placed. I am now informed by the coiinuissioners that the .stat- 
ues are completed and ready to be presented to Congress. 

I have the honor, therefore, as governor of Jlissouri, to present to the 

Government of the United States, through the Congress, the statues of 

the distinguished statesmen named, and to ask that they may be assigned 

a place in the hall dedicated to such >ises at the Capitol. 

\'er\' respectfully, 

LON \". STEPHENS, Governor. 

Mr. CocKRELL. I ask that tlie concurrent resolution of the 
House of Representatives may be laid before the Senate. 

75 



jA Proccediiii^s in the Senate. 

The President pro tempore. The Chair lays before the 
Senate a concurrent resolution of the House of Representatives, 
which will be read. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

In thk Housk (IK Representatives, 

February 4, jSgg. 

Resolved by the House of Represeiitatiirsillie Senate conciirritig). That 
the thanks of Congress be presented to the State of Missouri for providing 
and furnishing statues of Thom.vs II.\rT BenTON, a deceased person, who 
has been a citizen thereof and ilhistrious for his historic renown and for 
distinguished civic services, and of Fr.\ncis Preston Blair, a deceased 
person, who has been a citizen thereof and illustrious for his hi-storic 
renown and tor distinguished civic and military services. 

Resolved, That the statues be accepted and placed in the National Stat- 
uary Hall in the Capitol, and that a copy of these resolutions duly authen- 
ticated be transmitted to the governor of the State of Missouri. 



S/iJ/i/cs of Thomas If. Bt-iito)i and Fraini's P. Blair. 75 

ADDRESS OF Mr. Vest, of Missouri. 

TH0:MA.S H. BENTON. 

Mr. President, nothing could more clearly .show how rapidly 
the bitter memories of the civil war are passing away than the 
fact that .Missouri sends to the National Capitol the .statues 
of Thomas H. Benton and Frank P. Blair, Jr. 

The first great conflict over African slavery in the Ihiited 
States occurred when Missouri was admitted into the Union 
as a slave State, accompanied by the enactment of what was 
known as the Missouri compromise, which provided that north 
of 36° 30' latitude slaver\- and involuntary servitude, except as 
a punishment for crime, should never exist. The next contest 
over slavery came with the passage of the Kansas-Neliraska 
bill in 1S54, the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and the 
birth of the Republican party upon the distinct i.ssue of free 
soil and opposition to the extension of slavery. 

This was followed by that terrible border war upon the 
frontiers of Missouri and Kansas, which depopulated whole 
counties, destroyed towns and villages, and reddened the mid- 
night sk\- with the lurid glare of burning homes. Old John 
Brown declared upon the scaiTold at Charlcstown, W. \'a.. 
that he had invaded Missouri three years before he attacked 
\'irginia, and had carried off seven slaves from Bates County 
to Canada without firing a gun. Literally he fired no guns, 
but he murdered in cold blood, with knives, one of the best 
men in Bates County, who attempted to prevent forcibly the 
outrage on his property. 

Xo State in the Union suffered more from internecine strife 
and neicrhborhood war than Missouri. The wounds inflicted 



76 Address 0/ Mr. I 'cs/ on llic . Icccptancc of the 

were deep and cruel, no man being willing to prophesy when 
their memory would pass away. But to-day Missouri sends to 
the National Capitol and to Statuary Hall the marble images of 
two men whose whole public lives were given to the cause of 
free soil and against the further extension of African slavery. 

Innnediately after the Revolutionary war, and even before it 
had closed, emigrants connnenced passing over the Appalachian 
Range into the gloomy forests of Kentucky and Tennessee to 
contest supremac}' over the soil with the Indians and wild 
beasts. This emigration was composed largel\- of Scotch-Irish 
blood, that most remarkable of all the races which have existed 
upon this continent, independent, self-willed, impatient of re- 
straint, yet not given to disorder; e\'ery man a soldier and his 
own leader; e\'ery woman fit to he the mother of heroes. This 
Scotch-Irish blood has given to the Western States, into which 
they went, blazing the paths of civilization with the ax in one 
hand and the rifle in the other, men who have impressed them- 
selves in war ;uul peace ujion these great connnnnities. 

Nearh all the leading families of Tennessee, Kentucky, and 
Missouri came from this »Scotch-Irish lineage, which po.s.sessed 
.so nuicli of indi\-idual and racial antipathies; always deter- 
mined in their own oj)inions, and with strong pa.ssions and 
high prejudices, but at the .same time deeply religions, their 
religion lieing militant, like that of the old Jews, who for forty 
years went through the wilderness ])raying by night and fight- 
ing b\' (la>', but always carr\ing with them the Ark of the 
Covenant. This vScotch- Irish blood has given to these Western 
States men who molded their institutions and impressed them- 
selves indelibily n])on their destiiu' — the Jacksons, Hardins, 
Clarks, McCullochs, McClernands, McKees, Hstills, and Gen- 
trys. Both their ancestors and their descendants have been 
leaders in every conununity where they became citizens. 



Slalucs of T/nnnas If. lieu ton and Francis P. li/air. 77 

With this remarkable pioneer migration across the Apjja- 
lachian Range of Scotch-Irish hneage there went also a small 
contingent of Virginians, another most remarkable race. They 
were the cavaliers of Kngland, who, after they lost the cause 
of the Stuarts, and before the restoration of Charles II, came 
from England to Mrginia. They were the men who charged 
with Prince Rupert against the ironsides of Cromwell and 
knew no fear. Among these families, descendants of whom 
can be found to-day in the Old Dominion, and in the two 
Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, were the Lees, 
known in England as the Loyal Lees, who gave to Virginia 
Light-Horse Harry in the Revolution. William Henry Lee in 
the councils of Congress, and Robert E. Lee. the peerless 
leader of his countrymen in our civil war. Side by side with 
the Lees who charged under Prince Rupert were the Bentons. 
Thom.\s H. Benton was descended from this family, and 
passed across the .\ppalachian Range from North Carolina, 
where his father had settled, to cast his destinies with the 
frontiersmen of Tennessee. 

Bextox's father, unlike the fathers of the Scotch-Irish 
immigrants, was not an extremely ]K)or man. The Beiitun 
family was entirely different in its circumstances from that of 
Andrew Jackson. Jack.son's mother was a widow in very 
indigent circinii.stances, unable at times to procure the neces- 
saries of life, and one of the most pathetic pictures of all our 
early history is that of Jackson's mother walking more than 
40 miles to see her two boys, prisoners to the Bricish, beg.ging 
her way as she went, without even an animal to ride. Bkn- 
Tox's father was a lawyer in good practice, and he gave liis 
son a collegiate education at Chapel Hill, in North Carolina. 
His mother was a Virginian. His father came directly from 
I-jT'lish lineage and his mother indirectly through one of the 



78 Address of Mr. I'est on tlic Acceptance 0/ the 

splendid families of old Virginia, that tarnished warriors and 
statesmen, the State which is known as the mother of vStates 
and statesmen. These people are described by Theodore 
Roosevelt, now governor of the State of New York, in his Life 
of Thomas H. Benton — one of the American series — in a few 
lines, arid I ask the Secretar>- to read them. 

The President pro tempore. The vSecretary will read as 
requested. 

The vSecretary read as follows: 

The world has never seen better soldiers than those who followed 
Lee, and their leader will nn<lonbtedly rank as without any exception 
the very greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking 
peoples have brought forth; and this, although the last and chief of his 
antagonists, may himself claim to .stand as the full equal of Marlborough 
and Wellington. 

Mr. \'i':.ST. Mr. President, 1 make no apology for having this 
quotation read, becau.se it is worthy of this era of fratertiization 
and of the gallant soldier who penned those lines. No man 
knows better the descendants of the old Virginians and the 
Scotch- Irish, the jieople of the great Conunon wealths of the 
West, than Theodore Roosevelt. He led them \\y that historic 
liill at Santiago when closed the Cuban war, and lie knows that 
the Rough Riders whom he led were the legitimate descendants 
of tho.se ancestors of whom I have spoken, having .simply laid 
aside the ax and rifle for the pistol and lariat of the plains. 

Colonel Benton, as I have stated, was b(5rn in North Caro- 
hna, and his father, dying in middle age, left to the family a 
large tract of land near Nashville, Tenn., to whicli the widow 
removed, Thom.\s H. Benton being the .second .son. Young 
BenTOX grew tqi on this tract of land, on which is located the 
town bearing the family name of Benton, and his life was like 
that of the average young frontiersman. He indulged in all 
the rough and exciting amusements and pursuits of that early 



S/iT///rs /)/' T/idWirs //. Beit ton aiui I^'ramix /'. HItxir. 70 

era. He fought chickens and fought the Imli.uis. He ran 
horses and ran for the legislature. He indulged in street 
brawls and affrays, not entirely creditable, in one of which 
Andrew Jackson was his opponent, both Ijeing l.iadh' wounded. 
No prophet could then fore.see that in after years Bknto.n, as 
Senator from Missouri, would become the great ally of Jack.son 
as President of the Ihiited States. 

Be:nTON served two years in the Teiniessee legislature, intro- 
ducing a bill to divide the State into judicial districts, which 
liecame a law, and also a bill, enacted into law, giving to negro 
.slaves who were charged with criminal offenses the right of 
trial by jury. This latter measure of legislation shows that 
Colonel Benton did not belong to that extreme Snuthern class 
who thought that negroes were mere chattels, to l>e Ixnight 
and .sold, and not human bein,gs. I^kxton, although a slave- 
holder, was never an advocate of the institution of slavery. 
He resented deeph' the idea of interference from other States 
who.se people had owned slaves and then from self-interest had 
done away with the institution; but he did not belie\-e that 
slavery should be extended or that it was beneficial either to 
the sla\-e or the sla\-e owner. 

He was one of that class of national statesmen at the head 
of whom was Thomas Jeffer.son, and to which belonged Henrv 
Clay, Houston, Davy Crockett, and Chief Justice Taney, who 
delivered the celebrated Dred Scott decision. In all his life 
Benton never hesitated to express his opinion in regard to the 
in.stitution of slavery as an economic institution, while at the 
same time he resented deeply an\- intimation that the Southern 
people were entirely responsible for its exi.stence. 

Jtist after theclo.se of the war of 181 2 Benton removed to 
the Territory of Missouri and settled in the old French village 
of St. Genevieve, 35 miles below St. Louis, on the Mis.si.ssippi 



8o .-liM/'t'ss ofWIr. J'fsi on the .lacptancc of tlie 

River. Not long since I saw the law office, btiilt of cypress 
logs, in which he practiced his profession and from which you 
could look out across tlie broad expanse of the Father of 
Ri\'ers. He remained it St. Genevieve onh' a few >'ears. The 
place was too small for his aggressive spirit, and he removed to 
St. Louis, then giving promi.se of becoming the great empress 
of the Missi.ssippi \'alley. 

Here he almost immediately became actively engaged in the 
practice of law and political life. He was unfortunately 
involved in a quarrel .soon after he became a citizen of vSt. 
Louis with young Lucas, a promising member of the bar and 
a son of Judge Lucas, who was the wealthiest and most influen- 
tial Whig in the Missouri Territory-. I do not care to speak at 
lengtli about personal matters, but it would not be perhaps 
improper to make a .statement in regard to the tragic event 
which cast a shadow over Colonel Bknton'.s subseijuent life 
and was the constant .source of attack in all his political career. 

P.KNTOX, as I have .said, came from that old \'irginia stock 
that was extremely sensitive as to personal honor. No man 
living ever attacked Colonel Bknton personally in regard to 
his integrit\' without 1)eing called to account. The lazzaroni 
of politics who indulge in declamati<.)u and general statement 
fled before him, and the man who remained to make the charge 
was compelled sooner or later to meet him face \o face. I never 
agreed with him politically, but standing here to-day I simply 
state what I know to lie true — that, .so far as the world could 
observe, he never knew the sensation of fear, either in jniblic in- 
private life. 

.Vt the first election after Bentox went to St. Louis and 
offered to vote, young Lucas challenged his vote. He chal- 
lenged it after Bentox had sworn that he was a bona fide 
citizen of the citv of vSt. lyouis and had come there to remain. 



S/ir//ti-s of Thomas IF. Benton and /■'ranc/s /'. lUair. 8i 

Bento.v ccMisidcrcd this as a chari^e of pijrjur>-, and lit: declared, 
the only time 1 ever heard that he nientinned the event after- 
wards, that it would only be removed b\' an abject and full 
apology or by blood. He promptly challenged Lticas. The\' 
fought upon Bloody Island, just lielow the city of St. Louis, in 
the Mississippi River. Lucas was almost mortally wounded. 
Benton waited until he was convalescent and challenged him 
again. In the second encounter Lucas was killed. Colonel 
Benton never admitted that in the absence of a full apology, 
after what Lucas had done, he could retain his self-respect or 
deserve that of others until he killed the man who had attacked 
his hoiKir. 

Mr. President, all this sounds to us now as semibarbarous, 
and yet if we carry ourselves back to the age in which this 
event occurred and place our.selves in the position public men 
then held it will, I think, charitabl>- be admitted that, enter- 
taining the opinion he did and in the comnuniity he lived. 
Benton could hardly have done anything else. Dueling was 
then an institution. Xo man could remain in public or social 
life without ostracism who refused whav the\- called a chal- 
lenge to the field of honor. All the (.listinguished men of 
the United States fought duels. When Randolph and Cla.\- 
fought, in sight of this Capitol, members of the Cabinet and 
memljers of the vSenate and House of Representatives, among 
whom was Colonel Benton, were jiresent as spectators. 
Jackson had killed his adversary in a duel. Houston luul 
fought a duel and wounded his o])ponent severely. Davy 
Crockett acknowledged the obligations of the duello and 
participated in it, and it was not until Hamilton fell before 
the deadly pistol of Aaron Burr that even the people of the 
conservative. God-fearing Xorth came toafidl realization of the 
terrible nature of this institution. 
S. Doc. 4s6 6 



82 . hfiifcss of Mr. I 'est on tlic Acceptance of the 

Colonel Bextox was elected to the United States Senate 
from the new State of Missouri, the second United States 
Senator, David Barton being the first. The Oregon question 
was then pending in the Senate of the United vStates, and 
the people throughout our country were preparing for war 
with Great Britain. England and the United States had 
been national tenants in common of that vast expanse of 
coiuitry now comprising a large proportion of the Vancouver 
district (jf British America and the great vStates of Oregon 
and Washington. The ri\-al interests uf the fur companies, 
the Hudson Bay Conipanj-, in England, and the North Amer- 
ican Fur Company, under Astor, in the United States, .soon 
brought about even armed conflict, and it became ab.solutely 
necessary to .settle the boundary line between the po.sse.ssions 
of the two countries. Colonel Benton when he entered 
Congress threw him.self with his usual aggressiveness into 
the middle of the fight. He declared that the United .States 
must hold every inch of the disputed territory, and that with 
10,000 Missourians he could settle the question in sixty ila>s. 
Benton believed in what was called manifest destin>-, which 
meant that the people of the Thiited States had a right to 
take all the territory that adjoined them, if they th(jught 
proper to do so. 

In his first speech delivered in the Senate upon the Oregon 
question, which was addressed to this body in his ore rotundo 
style and with great eiTusion of classical reference, he stated 
that the United States nuist take this territory without compro- 
mise, without question, and that it would soon be peopled by 
millions of Orientals — Chinese and Japanese — who would come 
to our shores, adopt our institutions, law, and religion, and 
become our best citizens. If Colonel Benton could have lived 
but a few vears more, he would have seen these Orientals 



S/a/i/fs of Jlioiiias If. Bcnloii and Francis P. lUair. S3 

whom he hospitably iiivileJ lo our shores lli.'ciiiij; at nii;hl, 
shot down b3' brutal mobs in the light of their l)iu'uing homes. 
Colonel Bkxtox overlooked, great man as he was, the racial 
antagonism which is above all human law. 

The Oregon question passed away without armed conflict, 
but leaving unpleasant reminiscences in regard to the negotia- 
tions between the two countries, and Benton then addressed 
himself to the material interests of the great West, whose 
representative he peculiarly was. He advocated with great 
power cutting down the immense Indian reser\'atious, so that 
instead of being under the control of the .savages they might 
become the happ>- homes of industrious whites. He above all 
other men was entitled to the credit for the establishment of 
our land system, the homestead and preemption laws, and the 
sales of our other lands at S'—S ^" ^^re to actual settlers. He 
opposed vigorously that iniquitous system of putting up the 
public lands to the highest bidder, which unquestionably placed 
them all eventually in the hands of syndicates and speculators. 

He passed through Congress a bill making the old vSanta 
Fe trail a national highway, to lie defended by the soldiers 
of the Federal Croverinnent, and he terminatetl in a ver\- few 
years by that legislation the bloodshed which for so long had 
occurred on the trail between Independence, Mo., and Sante Fe 
and Albuquerque, in Xew Mexico, when the .Sioux, Apaches, 
Comanches, and Pawnees attacked every cara\-an uidess it was 
too strong to be overpowered. 

In i82,S came a great parliamentary contest in which Benton 
bore conspicuous part. Mr. Calhoun then advanced his idea of 
nullification by a State of Federal legislation when the people 
of that State believed the enactment of such legi.slation was 
absolutely destructive of their best interests. Slavery was not 
involved in that contest. It was a question of tariff taxation. 



84 .liMrrss of Mr. I 'est on the Acceptance of the 

Callioun argued with great ability that a State could remain in 
the Unioji and yet nullif>- an act of the Federal Congress which 
even the vSuprenie Court decided to be constitutional. 

I have always regarded Mr. Calhoun as one of the greatest 
analytical di.sputants this or any other conntr\' has ever pro- 
duced. I have .studied his works; but I was never able to 
appreciate his argument in favor of nullification. Jaclcson, who 
was then President, looked upon it as absolute treason, and 
declared that if Calhoun undertook to carry it out he would 
hang him as high as Haman. Clay and Webster stood by the 
side of Benton in defending the position taken by Jackson, 
and although there was a compromi.se without armed conflict 
between South Carolina and the General Go\-ernment. I have 
no doubt that the nullification contest of 1828 influenced all 
the subsequent career of Colonel Benton, and the opinions he 
then ftjrnied were responsible for his final political overthrow in 
Missoiu'i. 

Colcjnel Benton, above all men — I will not say above all 
men, but certainly without any .superior in the regard I am 
about t(i mention — loved the Union. It colored and influenced 
all his life, and he firmly believed that Mr. Callujun was a 
traitor and had then inaugurated or attempted to inaugurate a 
scheme to estalilish a Southern confederacy ba.sed upon the 
institution of African slavery. Notwithstanding many acrimo- 
nious debates, he renewed his friendship with Web.ster and 
Clay, but never forgave Mr. Calhoun. I heard him in 1S56, 
when a candidate f(.)r governor of Missouri, declare emphat- 
ically in a public address that if he had been President in 1828, 
instead of threatening to hang Calhoun, he would have hanged 
him on the eastern exposure of the Capitol, and appealed to the 
people of the United vStates to vindicate his action. 

.V few years after the nullification struggle came the great 



statues of Tlwimis If. Bciito)! a>id Francis P. lilair. S5 

conflict over the old I'tiited States Hank, when Jackson, with 
his usual impetuosity and self-will, took tlie institution out 
of the hands of Nicholas Biddle and removed the deposits. 
Whether he had a ri.ijht to do that or not, whicli 1 do not care 
now to discuss, because it is ancieut history, Jackson lielieved 
that he was doing his duty, and the people of the United vStatcs 
by a large majority vindicated his action. Clay, Calhoun, and 
Webster attacked the Administration on account of the removal 
of the bank depo.sits, and Benton, single-handed and alone, 
fought that great triumvirate day after day in the Senate of 
the United States until the resolution of censure was pas.sed 
against Jackson. 

Ordinary men would then have given up the conllict, but not 
.so with Thom.vs H. Benton. With him the battle had just 
commenced. After a short pause he introduced his resolution 
to expunge the resolution of censure from the records of the 
Senate. The last night of that terrible struggle, the mo.st 
remarkable in our parliameiUary history, and which took place 
in what is now the room of the Supreme Court, was signalized 
by many dramatic incidents. Benton .said, and I have no 
doubt believed, that he was to be assassinated upon that night 
from the gallery, and he stood in the Chamber, throwing open 
his coat and vest, and daring the bank robbers to attack liim. 

Then, as now, the Senate of the United States had no pre- 
vious que.stiou, and the matter could be determined only by a 
war of exhaustion physically. Benton stocked the couunittee 
rooms with provisions and litpiors so that starvation might not 
weaken his forces. And, singularly enough, after succeeding 
in. expunging the hated re.solution, Benton regarded that as 
the great triumph of his life. He never spoke afterwards 
before the people of Missouri without declaring that, single- 
handed and alone, Hknton jnit this ball in motion. .\s a 



86 Addrtss of Mr. I 't-s/ on the Accep(a)ico of the 

matter of practical and material legislation it amounted to 
nothing. As a personal triumph Colonel Bentox regarded it 
as the crowning glory of his long and able public career. 

Passing over intermediate events, I come now to the crisis in 
Benton's remarkaVile public life. The question of slavery 
had remained not in a quiescent attitude, but not the foremost 
c|uestion in the politics of the day until after the Mexican war, 
when Texas applied for admission to the I'nion in 1.S44-45 as a 
slave State. Colonel Benton opposed the admission of Texas, 
and it sounded the knell of his fate in Missoiu'i. A young, 
amljitious, and able coterie of politicians had grown up in Mis- 
souri while Benton during thirt>' or nearh" thirt}- years had 
labored in Washington. His maimers were not .such as to 
make him popular. He was a.ggressive and almost insulting to 
men who differed with him. To give a .single instance of his 
manner of meeting the people: In one of the comities of my 
old circuit when I first commenced practicing law was a most 
excellent, learned, and modest man, not a politician, an old 
Virginian of moderate estate, a gentleman of culture, and a 
Democrat beyond question, who had supported Colonel Benton 
for more than twenty-five years. He saw proper to express 
his disapproval of Colonel BiiXTON's course in re.gard to the 
admission of Texas. After speaking at the count>' town, and 
when the crowd came forward, as is the custom to-day, to 
shake hands with an eminent speaker, this gentleman, after 
the press of the crowd had tlisappeared, advanced and in old 
Virginia style extended his hand and saluted Colonel BenTon. 
In the presence of the audience, who had not yet dispersed, 
Benton looked at him from head to foot without a single 
evidence of recognition. This gentleman, Ijowing, said: "You 
possilily have forgotton me. Colonel Benton; I am Mr. 
. " Drawing himself up to his full hei.glit, Benton 



S/(i///cs of Thomas If. Peii/mi and Francis P. Blair. 87 

replied in tones that could be heard in every part of the 
buildin.y, "Sir, Bentox once knew a man \i\ that name, but 
he is dead; yes, sir, he is dead." And so he went into every 
county in the State, denouncin,a: every man by name who dared 
to oppose his political action. 

As a matter of course, there could be but one way of deter- 
mining an issue between Colonel Bextox and those who 
differed with him. He matle no compromise: he asked none. 
Every citizen must either agree with him or be ranked as his 
personal and political enemy. It was his nature, and he could 
no more change it than he cotild the color of his hair and e}-es. 

Colonel Bextox was assailed by his enemies because he had 
advocated the admission of Missouri as a slave State and then 
opposed the admission of Texas as a slave State. I lis reply 
was imperfect and not satisfactory. He said he was opposed 
to the extension of slavery; that slavery existed in the Louisi- 
ana purchase when Jeffenson bought it from France, l>ut that 
slavery had not existeil on the soil of Mexico, and therefore 
Texas should not come in as a slave State. 

Colonel Bextox advocated the ^Missouri compromise, which 
accompanied the admission of Missouri into the Union. Th.at 
compromise directly declared that slavery- .should not exist 
north of 36° 30'. but if it meant anything it suggested that 
a State south of 36° 30' could be admitted into the Union as 
a slave State if the people so desired. Colonel Bextox was 
accused by his enemies of Ijeing selfishly prompted when Mis- 
souri was admitted, because he expected to be a United States 
.Senator. It had its weight with a large number of people in 
Missouri, but for myself I never believed the cliarge to be trtie, 
because of all the public men I ha\-e ever known Tiiom.\s H. 
Bextox considered less than an>- other the political efTect upon 
himself. 



88 Address ofMr. I 'i\s/ on thr .liccplainc ofllir 

He opposed tlit; iidiiiissiuii of Texas, as I believed then and 
believe now, liecause he thought it was a part of Calhoun's 
scheme to dissolve the Union. Never after the nullification 
fight of 182S did Benton waver in his opinion that there was 
a conspiracy to break up the Union and estal:)lish a vSouthern 
confederacy upon the basis of slavery. 

No man who ever existed in the puljlic life of this country 
more completely and apparently connnitted suicide than 
THOMA.S H. Benton. He knew as well or Ijetter than any 
other man what the prejudice and opinions of the people of 
Missouri were on the subject of slavery, and their .sympathy 
with their brethren from the Southern States that had gone 
to Texas, thrown off the yoke, and e.stablished an independent 
State. 

But more than this, he knew there was not a family in west- 
ern Mis.souri that had not lost father, Ijrother, Imslxand, or son 
upon the Santa P'e trail, fightin.g tho.se nnirderous .savages who 
attacked every trapper and every caravan too .small to resist 
them, and that the people of Missouri firmly believed that the 
Mexicans had incited the Indians to make the.se attacks. It 
was well known that tlie merchants of Santa Fe, Ahnujuerque, 
and Tamaulipas, and the other northern Mexican States ob- 
jected to the trade between Missouri and New Mexico. It was 
extremely lucrative to the.se Mexican merchants to have a 
monopoh- of the sale of goods to their own people, and when- 
ever any of the.se murderous Indians were made prisijiiers Ijy 
the Missourians there were alwavs found amongst them Mexi- 
cans dressed like the Indians, appealing to their passions and 
jirejudices and leading them on to these terrible outrages. 

Colonel Benton, knowing all these things, did not hesitate. 
The legislature of Missouri in 1848 passed resolutions censuring 
his course on the Texas question, and declaring that Mi.s.souri 



S/i7//f/-s (if T/ioiii(is If. Ih-jilo)! and Francix P. Blair. S9 

would share the fate of her Southern brethren. The challeiij^e 
was promptly accepted. Benton came back from Washiui^lon, 
canvassed the State in a vitriolic canipai.t^n such as has never 
been known. If any man amoni^st his (i]iponents had a weak 
place in his armor, Benton found it out and assailed him by 
name. That he lived throui;;!! this canvass was a miracle, for 
the men of the frontier were ([uick to aven.u^e an insult or a 
wrong, and there was not a speech made 1)\- him in which 
drawn pistols and knives were not brandished in his face. Tlis 
personal fearlessuess saved his life, for if there was one quality 
more prized than another upon the frontier it was insensibility 
to personal danger. 

Benton was defeated in his appeal to the people in 1S49, 
and Henry S. Geyer, a prominent Whig lawyer of St. Louis, 
was elected to succeed him in the Senate by a fusion of the 
Whigs and anti-Benton Democrats. 

Colonel Benton came back to Washington and commenced 
the preparation of his Thirty Years' \'iew, the most valuable 
political treatise known in our history. 

In 1S52 he was elected to the Xatiomd House of Repre- 
.sentatives from St. Louis, the only district in the State that 
had a Free Soil majority. At the end of two years he was 
defeated by a Knownothing candidate, and again went back 
to his literary labor. 

In 1856, when there were three candidates for the Presidency, 
his own .son-in-law being the candidate of the Republican party, 
Benton declared himself for Buchanyn .-uul liecame an inde- 
pendent Democratic candidate for governor of Missouri. He 
was the third candidate in the race. Trusten Polk, the regular 
Democratic candidate, was elected to this body, and Colonel 
Benton returned again to Washington City for the purpo.se of 
finishing his Thirty Years" \'iew and commencing the prepara- 
tion of his digest of debates of Congress from the beginning of 



go Address of Mr. I 'is/ on ilw ^Icccptaiicc (f the 

the Governmeut dowu to that time. He also prepared a severe 
attack, in the shape of a pamphlet, against the Supreme Court 
I'cir its decision in the Dred Scott case. 

lint his race for governor in 1856 closed his political career 
fore\'er. He died here in 1.S58 and was buried in Bellefontaine 
Cemeter\-, in the city of .St. Louis, where he had li\-ed, the 
funeral being attended by over 40,000 people from all parts 
of Missouri and the adjacent .States. 

It has been often asked, Mr. President, whether EknTox was 
the eipial of his three contemporaries. Clay, Webster, and Cal- 
houn. He was not the equal of Mr. Cla>- as an orator; he was 
not the equal of Mr. Webster as a lawyer; he was not the equal 
of Mr. Calhoun as a close, analytical debater and disputant; but 
he was the superior of any of the three .-is a \-aluable, all around 
legislator. His industry- was unparalleled, his hone.sty above 
question, his courage, morally and physically, equal to that 
of any man who ever lived upon this earth. 

Benton was not a Southern Democrat; he was a National 
Democrat. He appreciated more thoroughly than any man of 
his era the possibilities of that vast country west of the Missis- 
sippi, destined to become the .seat of empire upon this continent. 
I heard him at a little town (.m the Missouri River, standing 
with his right arm extended, declare, with the air and tones 
of an ancient prophet, "There is the East; there is the road 
to India," and upon his bronze statue in Forest Park in St. 
Louis to-day upon the pedestal are engraved these prophetic 
words. He declared, and men laughed at him when he said it, 
that this continent would be bound together by bands of iron 
which would carry our produce to the Pacific .slope to feed the 
innumerable millions in Asia and the Orient. 



.Sta/iics o/ Thoiiiijs ]f. Bcii/oii and I-'ramis /'. Itlair. 91 

FKAXIC V. lil.AIK, JR. 

Benton's political mantle fell loj^ically and ine\-itably U])on 
the shoulders of his protege. I'kaxk P. Bi.aik, Jr. 

Blair was the son of Benton's old friend Francis Preston 
Blair, who died here some years ago at Silver vSprings, almost 
in .sight of this city. When Duff Green, who was the original 
editor of the old Globe, the organ of the Democrats at Wash- 
ington, had differences of opinion with General Jackson as 
President, the Administration looked around for a younger man 
of great ability and experience in journalism to take Green's 
place. 

Preston lilair. as he was termed, was then i)art owner and 
chief editor of the old Argus, of Frankfort, K\-., the birthplace 
of young Frank Blair. It was what was called in the new 
and old court struggle in Kentucky the new court organ. Bnt 
Jack.son and Benton, who had then become great friends, sent 
for Preston Blair and made him the chief editor of the GloI)e. 
It was but natural that Colonel Benton should ask his old 
friend to send his youngest boy, who had been rai.sed in Wash- 
ington, to the city of vSt. Louis to liecome the protege of Ben- 
ton. And so Frank Blair, as he was called in Missouri. 
became a member of the St. Louis bar, and, thoroughly imbued 
with the political prejudices and opinions of his father and 
Benton and Jackson, became the leader of the Beuton Democ- 
racy in that city. 

After the death of Benton, in 1858, Blair became a member 
of the National House of Representatives for the district where 
Benton had been defeated. He knew the people of Missouri 
and Kentucky well and that all their prejudices and opinions 
were in behalf of the South. He knew that the State govern- 
ment, all the State officers from the governor down, and all the 



92 Addrt'ss ofA/r. res/ on tlic Acccptaiuf of Ihc 

legislature, with but very few exceptions, were devoted to the 
Soutli. He knew that the Missourians were a martial people, 
trained to the saddle and the use of arms from boyhood, and lie 
was certain that unless vigorous measures were innnediately 
taken to prevent the State from organizing it would throw its 
vast military power with the side of the Confederate vStates. 

Blair immediately and secretly commenced the organization 
of seven regiments of Germans in the city of St. Louis, a 
people trained as soldiers in the Fatherland, devoted to the 
Union, and opposed to slavery. He became, having had some 
experience in the Mexican war, colonel of the first regiment, 
anil, member of the National House of Representatives as he 
was, when Lincoln was elected, he hastened to Washington 
and informed Lincoln of the situation in Missouri; that the 
United States arsenal was filled with munitions of war and arms 
and nmst be seized or it would be taken and used to arm the 
militia of the State. He asked for an officer ethicated at West 
Point to take command of the arsenal and of the Federal forces 
in Missouri. 

Lincoln, a citizen of Illinois and familiar with Missouri 
politics, appreciated what Bl.vik said and innnediately .sent 
Nathaniel Lyon, of Comiecticut, a West Pointer, to take charge 
of the troops already organized and drilled by Blair in St. 
Louis. Lyon fell on Bloody Hill at the battle of Springfield, 
as it is called by the Federals, and the battle of Oak Hill, 
as it is called by the Confederates. He fell in a last desperate 
charge. If he liad lived, his fame would have rivaled that of 
any man in the ci\-il war. So soon as Blair had conferred 
with Lyon, the latter adopted the plan of campaign which 
Blair suggested. The State go\'ernment, ilevdted to the 
Confederacy, had formed a camp of instruction in the \-icinity 
of St. Louis, composed of young men, ardent advocates of the 
Southern cause. 



S/a//it-s t>/' Tliituins I [. Htntoii (Ti/(/ /'ratnis /'. lUair. 



93 



On a bright iiioniiiig, without priiinonitiiin, I'.i.air and Lyoii 
surrounded these 1,200 .State niihtia with (1,000 Oennans, 
armed and drilled, captured tliein, broke up the camp, and 
started to the city with their prisoners. The jieople of St. 
Louis, taken b\- .surprise and .greatly excited, surrounded the 
captors and the captured. A German captain, aggravated and 
incensed by the jeers and insults of the crowd, ordereij his men 
to fire upon the inoffensive and unarmed jieople. More than 
40 were killed and wounded — men, women, and children — and- 
in a few hours the State was aflame with indignation. 

Blair, although he was not anticipating what was called 
the massacre, was immediately prepared for action against the 
consequences. He knew that the railroad, the onl_\- railroad 
running we.st from St. Louis, would be destroyed by the State 
government, but he .seized five steamboats lying at the wliarf, 
put crews upon them, went up the river with his (".erman regi- 
ments, captured Jefferson City, the capital, dispersed the .State 
government, overwhelmed the few hundred militia, unarmed 
and undisciplined, who met him at Booneville, and, in my 
judgment, caused Missouri to diviile her forces in the war 
between the North and the South instead of .going .solidly to 
the Confederate cause, as Init fijr him would have lieen the 
case. 

I .say here now to-day, deliberately, from my personal kncjwl- 
edge of affairs then in the State, that but for Fr.-\nk Ri..\ik 
Missouri wotdd have given her solid strength ts) tin.' South- 
ern cause. I do not choose to conjecture what would have 
been the result. Southern Illinois, Kentucky, and Maryland, 
as all the world knows, s\'mpathized with tlie South, and 
the result of the war might have been difterent but f. )r the 
wonderful fearlessness and jiromptitude with which I!;i,.\ik 
acted. As it was, the r.ien of Missouri at heart in .sympathy 
with the .South were unable to reach the Confederate armies 



94 Address o/Mr. J'csl on titc .icceptaiicc of llic 

except at the risk of their hves. Bi^air, IjehevinL( that the 
State was entirely safe to the Ihiion, as he iiifornied Lincohi, 
then took his regiment — the first regiment — and joined the 
Army of the Cumberland. He rose to the rank of major- 
general and commanded a corps at the close of the war. 

When he came back to Mi.ssouri the attitude of affairs had 
changed entirely. The Girondists, under the leadership of 
Hamilton R. Gamble, had disappeared, and the Jacobins, imder 
the leadership of Charles 1). Drake, were in pos.session of the 
vState. The Drake constitution had l.een enacted — the most 
drastic, the most cruel, the most outrageous enactment ever 
known in a civilized country. Xo man could practice law, 
teach school, preach the gospel, act as trustee, hold any office 
of honor, trust, or profit, or vote at any election, unless he 
swore he had never sympathized with the cau.se of the Con- 
federacy or any person fighting for it. The father who had 
given a drink of water or a cru.st of bread to his .son who 
belonged to the Confederate forces was ostracised and put 
under the ban of the law. 

The intelligence, virtue, and property c)f the vState were 
driven away from the polls, and ignorance, crime, and vice 
took complete control. Old ob.solete railroail charters, passed 
years before, giving county courts the right to subscribe for the 
construction of railroads without a vote of the people, were 
revived. Millions of dollars of fraudulent bonds were issued by 
bought county courts. Nearly $20,000,000 of these bonds were 
hurried out of the State, sold to pretended bona fide buyers, 
and, under the decisions of the .Supreme Court of the United 
vStates, they became commercial paper negotiated before ma- 
turity for a valuable consideration to imiocent purchasers. 

Blair came back and went to the polls, dressed in his major- 
general's uniform, and demanded the right to vote without 



Sta/iics of TltoDias J I. /uii/oii and l-'rancis P. Blair. 95 

takins;- the oath. It was denied, and he iinniediatel>' com- 
menced suit a.ijainst the election officials. Pending- that suit, a 
Catholic i>riest named Cunnnin.ns, who had insliluted a similar 
proceed] ii.ilI, had his case adjudicUed by the Snjireme Court, 
and it was decided that the Drake constitution violated that of 
the United States and was a bill of attainder and ex jiost facto 
law. General Bi..\.ik, not satisfied, attacked the Drake party 
throughout the Conunonwealth, and canva.ssed it from one end 
to the other, denouncing the men who were perpetrating these 
iniquities upon the people of the State. He was nominated in 
1 868 upon the ticket with Seymour for the A'ice-Presidency, 
but defeated. He was then elected to the Missouri legislatiu'e, 
and before he had fairly taken his seat Drake was made by 
Grant chief ju.stice of the Court of Claims, and Bi,.mk was 
elected to fdl out his unexpired term. At the end of that term 
his health was completely shattered, and he was defeated for 
reelection simply upon the ground that he was i)h>sically 
unable to discharge his vSenatorial duties. 

He had more personal friends than any public man who ever 
lived in Mi.ssouri. He had bitter enemies, like all men of 
positive convictions will always have, but e\'en his enemies 
never doubted Frank Bl.^ir's sincerity, and always respected 
him because he was open, fair, fearless, honest, and true to his 
convictions. 

?\Ir. President, these men sleep together in Missouri soil 
almost side by side, and so long as this Capitol shall stand or 
this nation exi.st their statues will be eloquent although silent 
pledges of Mis.souri's eternal allegiance to an eternal Union. 



96 Address of Mr. Cockrcll on the Acccpta)icc of t/ic 



ADDRESS OF Mr. COCKRELL, OF MISSOURI. 

THOM.\S HART BENTON. 

Mr. President, it is exceedingly appropriate that the State 
of Missouri should provide and furnish the marble statues of 
Thomas Hart Benton and Francis Preston Blair as the 
two deceased persons who have lieen citizens thereof and illus- 
trious for historic renown and for distinguished civic .services. 

Benton was Missouri's great Senator and benefactor, and 
upon his death Blair became his successor in accomplishing 
many measures dear U> him. 

Parentage and envinmments in youth to manhood have great 
influence in developing the elements of character. 

Benton was born near Hillslwro, in Orange County, N. C, 
on March 14, 1782. 

His father was Col. Jesse Benton, a lawyer of high staniling 
and distinction, who was the private secretary of Governor 
Tryon, the last royal governor of North Carolina. His mother 
was Aim Gooch, of Hanover County, Va. 

He was a cousin of the wife of Hein-y Clay, born Lucretia 
Hart, and was often, by an eas\- mistake, quoted as a relatix'e 
of Mr. Clay. Benton in his autobiography says: 

lie- lubt his father before he was 8 years of age and fell under the care 
of a mother still vonnt; and charged with a numerous family, all of lender 
age, and devoted herself to them. 

She was a woman of reading and observation — solid reading and obser- 
vation of the men of the Revolution brought together by course of hospi- 
tality of that time, in which the houses of friends and not taverns were 
the universal stopping places. 

Thomas was the oldest son, and at the age of 10 and 12 was reading 
solid books with his mother and studying the great examples of historj 
and receiving encouragement to emulate these examples. 



S/a/iirs of Thomas II. Pciitoit nnd Fraiiris P. Blair. 97 

His father's library, iinioiig others, containeil tlie fainotis State trials in 
the Uirsje folios of that lime, and here he got a foundation of British his- 
tory in reading the treason and other trials with which these volumes 
abound. She was also a pious and religious woman, cultivating the 
moral and religious education of her children and connected all her life 
with the Christian Church, first as a member of the English Hpiscop;dian, 
and when removal to the great West — then in the wilderness — had broken 
that connection, then in the Methodi,st Episcopalian, in which she <lied. 
All the minor virtues, as well as the greater, were cherished by her. and 
her house, the resort of the eminent men of the time, was the abode of 
temperance, modesty, and decorum. A pack of cards was never seen in 
her house. 

From such a mother all the chiUhen received the impress of future 
character, and .she lived to see the fruits of her pious and liberal cares — 
living a widow above fifty years— and to see her elde.st son half through 
his Senatorial career and taking his place among the historic men of 
the country, for which .she had begun so early to train him. These 
details deserve to be noted, though small in themselves, as showing how- 
much the after life of the man may depend upon the early cares and 
guidance of a mother. 

He was richly endowed 1)\- inheritance from father ;ind 
mother with a robnst, healthfnl body. eapal)le of the greate.st 
possible labors and endurance, and a strong, acti\-e, grasping, 
and retentive mind, capable of long, continuous, lal)orious work 
and of holding and storing away information and facts, knowl- 
edge for use as occasion offered. 

His scholastic education was limited. He attended a gram- 
mar school, and was then a student at Chapel Hill, the Univers- 
ity of North Carolina, but did not finish his course of study, 
his mother removing to Tenne.ssee, where his father had 
acquired 40,000 acres of land. 

The family settled upon a choice 3,000-acre tract in West 
Harpeth, 25 miles south of Nashville, the care and manage- 
ment of which fell iii>on him. It was the outside settlement 
between civilization and the great Southern Indian tribes, 
which spread to the Gulf of Mexico, and their great trail led 
through it. Lands were lea.sed to .settlers, and a colony was 
S. Doc. 456 7 



gS Address of Mr. CockrcII on tlic Acceptance of the 

soon formed. A log schoolhuusL-, meetinghouse, and mills 
were erected. 

While his scholastic education had ceased, his studies had 
not. ' ' History and geography were what he considered his 
light reading; national law, the civil law, the common law, 
and, finally, the law itself, as usually read by students, con.sti- 
ttited his .studies. And all this reading and study was carried 
on during the active personal exertions which he gave to the 
opening of the farm and tn the ameliorations upon it which 
comfort exacted." 

He was licensed to practice law by the three superior court 
judges, began the practice, and was successful. He was promi- 
nent politically, was the friend of General Jackson, and was 
soon elected to the general assembly of the State and there 
began his career as a true reformer, and was the author of 
the judicial-reform act, substituting the circtiit for the superior 
court svstem, and of a humane law giving to slaves the same 
right to trial l)y jur\- as the white man had under the same 
accusation. 

Resuming his practice, war was declared by Congress on 
June iS, 1S12, to "exist between the United Kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof, and 
the United States of America and their Territories." 

Volunteers were called for to descend the rivers to New Or- 
leans to meet the British. Three Tennessee regiments were 
quickly formed, and "Thom.v.s H. Bkntox was appointed 
colonel of the Second Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, Decem- 
ber 10, 1812, and .served as of that grade until April 20, 1S13." 

On the first indications of the war he had been appointed 
aid-de-camp to General Jackson, commanding the Tennessee 
militia, and was active and energetic in organizing the regi- 
ments. 



Sla/iirs of TJi(y>iias H. Benton and Francis P. Blair. 99 

The volunteers descended to the Lower Mississijipi; the 
British did not then come, and the\- returned to Teiniessee 
and were temporarily disbanded. 

Colonel H]':xTox came to \Vashin,s;toii and was appointed 
lieutenant-colonel of the Thirt>-ninth Rei;inient United States 
Infantry, to rank from June iS, iSi;,, and iiroceeded to Canada 
for service. 

The treaty of peace was signed at Ghent on the 24tli day 
of December, 1.S14. was ratified and confirmed Ijy the Senate 
on the 17th day of February, 1S15, and was proclaimed by 
President Madison on the i8th day of February, 18 15. lender 
the act of March 3, 18 15, for the reduction of the Army to a 
peace basis, Benton was discharged as lieutenant-colonel on 
the 15th da>- of Jinie, 1S15. with three months' extra pay. 

He at once made St. Louis his home and recommenced his 
profession with success, mingling actively in discussing polit- 
ical and public questions and advocating the admission of the 
Territory (if Missouri as a State in the Union. Cougress, by 
act of March 6, 1820, authorized the inhabitants of that por- 
tion of the Missouri Territory therein described "to form for 
themselves a constitution and State government, and to assume 
such name as they shall deem proper," for admission into 
the Union upon an equal footing with the original States, 
fixed the finst Monday of May, 1820, and the two next suc- 
ceeding days for the election of representatives to form a con- 
vention, and the second Monday of June, 1820, for the meeting 
of the convention: and by section 8 prohibited .slavery in all 
that territory ceded by France north of 36° 30' north latitude, 
which was called the ' " Mi.ssouri Compromise ' ' and adopted 
after a prolonged and bitter controversy. 

The representatives to the convention were elected on the 
first Mondav of May and the two succeeding days, being the 



lOO Adi-/ress 0/ Mr. Cocknil on llw Acceptance of tlic 

first, second, and third days, and met at St. Louis, Mo., on the 
second Mondaj' in June, l:)eing the 12th day of June, 1820, and 
completed their labors on July 19, 1820, and passed an ordi- 
nance declarnig the assent of Missouri to the five conditions 
and provisions of the enabling act of March 6, 1820, contained 
in the sixth section of said act, and transmitted to Congress a 
true and attested copy of such constitution. 

The constitution so adopted on Jul\- 19, 1820, required the 
president of the convention to issue writs of election to the 
sheriffs directing elections to be held on the fourth Monday — 
the 28th day — of August, 1820, for the election of a governor, 
lieutenant-governor. Representative in Congress, State .senators 
and representatives, and county officers. 

It required the general assembly to meet in vSt. Louis on the 
third Monday — the i8th day— of September, 1820, and on the 
first Monday in November, 1821, and on the first Monday of 
November, 1822, and thereafter every two years. 

Section 26 of the constitution, referring to the general assem- 
bly, declared; 

It shall be their duty as soon as may be to pass such laws as may be 
necessarv to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from cominjf to and set- 
tling in this State under any pretext whatever. 

The election for State and other officers was held on Augu.st 
28, 1820, and the first general assembly met in St. Louis on 
September 18, 1820, and the governor and lieutenant-governor 
elected were duly inaugurated and entered upon their duties, 
and the senate and house of representatives were duly organ- 
ized and proceeded with their business, and on October 2, 1820, 
elected David Barton anil Th(jm.\s H.vrt Bentox Senators 
from that vState, Benton being elected by i majority. The 
whole machinery of State and county governments was com- 
pleted and put in operation before the State was admitted into 
the I'nidU. 



S/atiirs of 'J'/ioiiias H. Benton and Francis P. Blair. \n\ 

On Xovemlier 14, 1S20, the da>- at'tL-r Congress coiu'tned. the 
President of the United States sent to the .Senate a copy of the 
constitution so adopted. 

On motion of Senator Smith, it was ordered that "a com- 
mittee lie appointed to iiujuire whether any, and if any what, 
legislative measures maj' be necessary for admitting the State 
of Missouri into the Union," and a committee of three was 
appointed, and the cop\- of the constitution was referred to the 
connnittee and ordered printed. On November 16, 1820, in 
the House of Representatives, Mr. Scott, who was the Delegate 
in Congress from the Territory of Missotiri elected to the Six- 
teenth Congress and had been elected the Representative to the 
Seventeenth Congress, beginning March 4, i<S2i, presented a 
manuscript attested co]!)- of the constitution to the Hou.se, 
and it was referred to a select committee of three. 

A long and heated controversy arose in the Hou.se and in 
the Senate over the clause in the constitution which I have 
(luoted. 

Many measures were proposed and discussed from time to 
time. 

Finally, on the 22d day of Fel:)ruary, 1821. Mr. Clay moved 

the adoption b>- the House of a resolution, as follows: 

Rciolved, That a committee be appointed on tlie part of this House, 
jointly with such committee as may be ,-ippoi-..ted on the part of the 
Senate, to consider and report to the Senate and House, respectively, 
whether it be expedient or not to make provision for the achiiission of 
Missouri into the Union on the .same footing as the original States, and 
for the due execution of the laws of the United States within JIis,souri; 
and if not, whether any other, and what, provision adapted to her actual 
condition ought to be made by law . 

This resolution was pas.seil by the House on the same day by 
yeas loi and nays 55. 

Mr. Clay moved that the connnittee con.sist of 23 members, 
to be elected by liallot, which was agreed to. 

On February 23 a ballot was had, and 17 members were 



I02 Address of Mr. Cockrcll on the Acceptance or' the 

elected on the first liallot. Mr. Clay then moved the rescind- 
ing of the order as to the selection of the remaining 6 members, 
which was agreed to, and the 6 remaining members were 
appointed by the Speaker. 

On February 24 the resolution of the House was reported 
to the Senate, taken up, and passed by j^eas 29, nays 7, and a 
committee of 7 appointed on the part of the Senate. 

On February 26 Mr. Clay, from the joint committee, reported 
to the House a joint resolution, which was read the first and 
second times and laid on the table; and afterwards, on same 
day, considered and passed by yeas 109 and nays 50. 

On February 27 the resolution was reported to tlie Senate 
and read twice by unanimous consent, and was ordered read a 
third time by yeas 26, nays 15. 

On February 28 the resolution was read the third time in the 
Senate, and pas.sed by yeas 28, nays 14, and was approved by 
the President March 2, 1S21, and is as follows: 

RESOLfTIOX providing for the admission of the St:)te of Missouri iiUo the I'nioii on 
a certain condition. 

Resoli'ed by tlie Senate and House of Representatives of t lie United States 
of America in Congress asseiiil>t<d, That Missouri shall be admitted into 
this Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects 
whatever upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the 
twentv-sixth section of the third article of the constitution, submitted on 
the part of said State to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize 
the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity 
thereto, by which any citiz^ of either of the States in this Union shall be 
excluded from the enjo3'ment of any of the privileges and immunities to 
which such citizen is entitled utider the Constitution of the United States: 
Provided, That the legislature of the said State, by a solemn public act, 
shall declare the assent of the said State to the said fundamental condition, 
and shall transmit to the President of the United States on or before the 
fourth Monday in November next an authentic copy of the said act; upon 
the receipt whereof the President, by proclamation, shall announce the 
fact; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Con- 
gress, the admission of the said State into this Union shall be considered as 
complete. 



S/ci/iics of Thomas H. Boitoii and Francis P. Blair. 103 

The orovenior of Missouri called the general assembly in spe- 
cial session on June 4, 1821, which passed "A solemn public 
act, declaring the assent of this State to the fundamental condi- 
tion contained in a resolution passed by the Congress of the 
United vStates providing for the admission of the State of 
Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," which was 
approved June 26, 182 1, and transmitted to the President. 

On August 10, 1821, President Monroe issued his proclama- 
tion ainiouncing the fact, and Missouri was on that day a Stale 
in the Union. 

The vSeventeenth Congress, March 4, 1S21, to March 3, 1823, 
began its first session on December 3, 182 1. 

The credentials of Barton and Bextox were dated October 9, 
1820, certified their election on October 2, and were for the 
first time presented to the Senate — Barton's on December 3, 
1S21, and Bextox's on December 6, 1821 — were read, and the 
oath administered to each on said days, respecti\-ely, when each 
took his seat. 

On December 6, 1S21, on motion of Senator Parrott, the 
Senate proceeded to ascertain the clas.ses in which the Senators 
from Missouri should be inserted. Barton drew Xo. 2, and was 
assigned to class 3, expiring March 3, 1825; and Bextox drew 
No. 3, and was assigned to class i, e.Kpiriug March 3, 1827. 

While they were elected October 2, 1820, before tlie .State 
was admitted into the Union, on August 10, 182 1, and Iheir 
credentials never presented to the Senate till December 3 and 
6, 1821, and no oath previously administered to them, and no 
record in the Journals of the Senate of their names or presence, 
the records of the Secretary of the Senate, dated March 3, 182 1, 
and signed by John Gaillanl, President pro tempore, .show that 
they were certified to ha\e attended. Barton from November 
14, 1820, and Bextox from November 18, 1820, each, to March 



I04 A(Mrcss of Mr. Cockrcll on the Acccptaiue of tlie 

3, 182 1, and were paid their regular per diem salary and mile- 
age, just as other Senators were. Colonel Benton was suc- 
cessively reelected for four more terms, and served continuously 
to March 3, 185 1, through the Seventeenth to the Thirtv-first 
Congress, both inclusive, fifteen Congresses. 

The .sixteenth general a.s.sembly of Missouri met December 
30, 1850, and .sat in joint convention Ui choose a United States 
Senator on January 10, 185 1, and from day to day till the 22d, 
when, after a protracted and fierce contest, on the fortieth 
liallot, Henry S. Geyer, a distinguished lawyer and Whig, was 
elected by 80 votes to 55 for Bentox, 18 for B. F. Stringfellow, 
and 4 scattering. 

In 1852 he was elected a Representative from St. Louis to 
the Thirty-third Congress, March 4, 1853, to March 3, 1S55. 
and was defeated for reelection to the Thirty-fourth Congress. 
Mr. Benton .served in the Seventeenth Congress on Commit- 
tees on Kngro.ssed Bills, Public Lands, Indian Affairs, and 
Military Affairs; in the Eighteenth Congress, on Engrossed 
Bills, Indian Affairs, and MiHtary Affairs; in the Nineteenth, 
Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Congresses, on 
Inilian Affairs and Military Affairs; in the Twenty-third, 
Twenty-fourth, Twent>--fifth, and Twenty-sixth Congresses, 
on Military Affairs only; in the Twenty-seventh and Twenty- 
eighth Congresses, on Military Affairs and Indian Affairs; in 
the Twenty-ninth Congress, on Military Aft'airs and Finance; 
in the Thirtieth Congress, on Military Affairs and Forei,t,ai 
Relations, and in the Thirty-first Congress, on Foreign Rela- 
tions only; served twenty-eight years on Military Affairs and 
sixteen years on Indian Affairs. 

In the Thirty-third Congress, in the House, 1853-1855, Mr. 
Benton was appointed on the Committee on Military Affairs. 

According to the records, Senator Benton did not introduce 



.S'A?///<\s- of Tlio)iias H. Dcii/oii and Francis P. Hlair. 105 

many bills. In fact, durintj his term coniparativclx- few hills 
were presented. 

In the Twentieth Congress, 1827-1.S29, there were presented 
in the Senate 175 bills of a pulilic nature, 73 private bills, and 
3 joint resolutions; and iu the House, 256 public bills, 206 
private bills, and 26 joint resolutions; 126 public acts, 100 
private acts, and 9 joint resolutions were passed. 

In the Thirtieth Congress, 1847-1S49, there were presented 
in the Senate 275 public bills, 227 private bills, 71 joint resolu- 
tions, and 9 private pension bills; and in the House, 449 public 
bills, 382 private bills, 65 joint re.solutions. and 4 private 
pension bills. 

In the Forty-fifth Congress, 1877-1879. there were presented 
in the Senate 995 public bills. 870 private bills. 72 joint reso- 
lutions, and 195 private pension bills; and in the House, 2.710 
public bills. 3,899 private bills, 250 joint re.solutions, and 1.319 
private pension bills; 254 public. 443 private, and 211 ]iri\-ate 
pen.sion acts were passed. 

In the Fifty-fifth Congress, 1 897-1 899, there were presented 
in the Senate 1,597 public bills, 3,997 private bills, 261 joint 
re.solutions. and 1.876 private pension bills; and in the Hon.se, 
2,563 public bills, 9,660 private bills, 385 joint re.solutions, and 
3,768 private pension bills; 449 public, 884 private, and 684 
private pension acts were passed. 

From 1820 to 1850 .Senators had much more time to devote 
to the investigation and di.scussion of pending measures, and 
much less committee work, than in recent years. During his 
entire term Senator Bentox was punctual in attending the 
sessions of the Senate, and took an active and conspicuous part 
in its proceedings. In his discussions of pending questions, 
his thorough investigation, familiarity with the facts, and clear 
conception of the influences and the effects, present and future, 
were made manifest. He exhausted the information and facts 
touching the subjects he discussed. 



io6 Address of Mr. Cockrcll on the Acceptance of tlic 

When he entered the .Senate salt was subject to a tariff tax 
of 20 cents per bushel of 56 pounds, and the public lands, by the 
act of April 24, 1820, had been reduced to $1.25 per acre, cash. 

The question of the occupation and settlement of the Oregon 
Territory on the Columbia River was pending and received his 
earnest support. He urged the planting of an American colony 
at the mouth of that river, clainiing, with great foresight, that 
it would result in the accomplishment of Mr. Jefferson's idea of 
a commercial communication with Asia through the heart of 
our continent, and that his efforts in that behalf were " nothin.g 
but the fruits of the seed jilanted in Iiis mind 1)\' the philo.sophic 
hand of ]\Ir. Jefferson, that man of large and useful ideas, that 
state.sman who could conceive mea.sures u.seful to all mankind 
and in all time to come." 

He opposed the Oregon Joint Occupation Con\'ention with 
England almost alone, but eighteen years later had the jileas- 
tire and honor of almost unanimous su])])ort. 

He opposed, by many speeches at different times, the tariff 
tax on imported .salt, neither di.scouraged nor dismayed, and 
finally succeeded in having it placed on the free list in the 
tariff law of Juh- 30, 1846. 

He opposed the Government leasing the mineral and saline 
lands, and succeeded in having those in Missouri made .subject 
to entry, as other lands. 

He strongly opposed the Panama mission, propo.sed Ijy 
President Adams, and the confirmation of the nominees. On 
motion of Mr. Van Buren, the Senate "Resolved to debate 
the question with open doors, unless, in the opinion of the 
President, the publication of docinnents necessary to be referred 
to in debate should be prejudicial to existing negotiations." 

A copy of the re.solution was sent to the President for his 
opinion on that point. He declined to give it, and left it to 



Statues of T/ionins If. Benton and Francis P. Blair. 107 

the Senate to decide for itself " the ([uestion of an unexani])led 
de]iartiire from its own nsages and upon the motives of which, 
uot being- liimself informed, he did not feel himself coni])etent 
to decide." 

A heated and intemperate discussion followed, which quickly 
cooled off and died out conipletel>-. 

Senator Bentox maintained with his characteristic firnniess 
the old policy of the United States to avoid entangling alliances 
and interference with the affairs of other nations, so strongly 
impressed upon the country by Washington, Jefferson, and 
others. 

When President Jackson, in his first annual message in 1829, 
rai.sed the question of the constitutionality and expediency of 
the law creating the Bank of the United States, whose charter 
would expire in 1836, Mr. Benton began an unrelenting oppo- 
sition to its recharter and continued it till success was achieved 
after a prolonged discussion resulting in much bitterness of 
feeling and in other questions equally exasperating, including 
the resolution of censure of President Jackson and the removal 
of the deposits from the bank. 

The resolution of the Senate condenniing President Jackson 
for removing the deposits of the Treasury from the bank was 
presented December 26, 1833, was changed twice, and finally 
read, "Resolved, That the President, in the late executive pro- 
ceedings in relation to the pulilic revenue, has assumed upon 
himself authority and power not conferred by the Constiiulion 
and laws, but in derogation of both," and was jxissed March 
28, 1834, by yeas 26, nays 20. 

On April 15, 1834, President Jackson sent tojhe Senate his 
protest against the resolution, which was read in the Senate, 
and the Senate refused to allow it to be entered upon the 
records of its Journal. 



loS .-iMress of Mr. CockrcU on tlic Acceptance of t lie 

When the protest was read, Senator Bextox gave notice of 
his intention to move an expunging resolution against the 
sentence of the Senate. 

On April 21, 1S34, the President sent to the Senate a message 
explanatory of the proper meaning of his protest. 

Mr. Bextox, in execution of his un.swerving determination, 
presented his expunging resolution time after time, and argued 
it in three or more set speeches, and finally, on March 16, i.'>37, 
secured its passage by yeas 24 and nays 19 — 5 absent. He 
opposed the passage of the law of June 23. 1836, "An act to 
regulate deposits of the public money," distributing the surplus 
money in the Treasury to the States. 

He favored the law establishing branches of the mint at 
New Orleans. La., Dahlonega, Ga., and Charlotte, N. C, and 
the coinage law of January 18, 1837, fixing the .standanl for 
both gold and silver coins at nine-tenths fine and one-tenth 
alloy, which was supplementary to the "Act of April 2, 1792, 
establishing a mint and regulating the coins of the United 
States," our first coinage law. and gave to both gold and silver 
free and unlimited coinage into full legal-tender money, inde- 
pendently of all nations, at the ratio of 15.988 of silver to i of 
gold, practically 16 to i, thus reducing the quantity of gold in 
the dollar and leaving the quantit\- of 412^-2 grains of silver to 
the dollar unchanged. He and his colleague. Senator Linn, 
distinguished and able, secured the passage of the act of June 7, 
1S36, "An act to extend the western boundary of the vState of 
Missouri to the Missouri River," on the extinguishment of the 
Indian title and the consent of Mi.ssouri. And that magnificent 
country, comprising six rich and populous counties in north- 
western Missouri, became a part of Missouri by the President's 
proclamation of March 28, 1837. He opposed the bill to repeal 
or rescind the Treasury circular known as the " sjjecie circtx- 
lar," issued under President Jackson, reciuiring gold and silver 
coins in payment for public lands, which was passed and vetoed. 



Sla/ufs of Thomas H. Bcntoit and Francis P. Blair. 109 

He favored the establishniciil of the independent treasuries 
for the deposit of pubhc funds and the divorcement of the Gov- 
ernment from the banks. He opposed the hiw of September 4, 
1S41, for the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of pnbUc 
land, and the l)ills to charter a national bank \eloed b\- Presi- 
dent Tyler, and the as.sumption by the United States of the 
debts of the States. He opposed the Texas annexation treaty 
and favored the recognition of the independence of Texas and 
the taxation of bank-note circulation. 

True and faithful to the policy of settling Oregon Territory 
with Americans, he favored the Oregon land-donation act of 
September 27, 1850, and was an earnest advocate of a railroad 
to the Pacific Ocean. 

On February 7, 1849, Senator Be.n'TOX asked leave to intro- 
duce "A bill to provide for the location and construction of a 
central national road from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi 
River, with a branch of said road to the Columbia River," .ind 
in e.K]ilanation said: 

When we acquired Louisiana Jlr. Jefferson revived this idea of estab- 
lishing an inland communication between the two sides of the continent, 
and for that purpose tlie well-known expedition of Lewis and Clarke was 
sent out bv him. * * * About thirty years ago I began to turn my 
attention to this subject. * * * l followed the idea of Mr. Jeiler.son, 
La Salle, and others, and attempted to revive attention to their plans. 
* * * I then expressed the confident belief that this route would cer- 
tainly be established imtnediately with the aid of the .\inerican Govern- 
ment, and eventually, even without that aid. by the ])rogre,ss of events 
and the force of circumstances. " * * 

I go for a national highway from the Mississippi to the Pacific, .ind I 
go against all schemes of individuals or of companies, and especially those 
who come here and a.sk of the Congress of the United Stales to give them- 
selves and their assigns the means of making a road and taxing the peojile 
for the use of it. * * * I propose to reserve ground for all sorts of 
roads, railwav, plank, macadamized. More than that, room lor a track 
bv magnetic power, according to the idea stated, I believe, by Profes.sor 
Henry, and, to me. plausibly pursued by Professor Page, of the Patent 
Office, if that idea ripens into practicability, and who can undertake to 
say that anvidea will not become ])racticable in the present age.' ~ ' * 



no Address of Mr. CockrcII o)i tlie Acceptance of Die 

An American road to India through the heart of our country will revive 
upon its line all the wonders of which we have read and eclipse them. 
The western wilderness from the Pacific to the Mississippi will start into 
life under its touch. A long line of cities will grow up. Existing cities 
will take a new start. The state of the world calls for a new road to 
India, and it is our destin}- to give it. the last and greatest. Let us act 
up to the greatness of the occasion and show ourselves worthv of the 
extraordinary circumstances in which we are placed by securing, while 
WL- can, an American road to India — central and national — for ourselves 
and our posterity, now and hereafter, for thousands of years to come. 

He advocated the right of preemption to settlers n]3()n tlie 
pnV)hc hnids, to induce their occupation 1)\- individuals, and the 
graduation of the minimum price of $1.25 \vi\ acre to $1 for all 
lands in the market undisposed of for ten years, 75 cents per 
acre for all in market fifteen years, and so on down to 12^ 
cents per acre. 

The graduation act was passed August 4, 1S54, while he was 
a member of the House, and the homestead law was pas.sed 
May 20, 1862. 

During his illustrious career his mo.st prominent character- 
istics were his devotion to the Union of the States and his 
burning antipathy to nullification, secession, and any and every 
other measure that might endanger the Union, and to the 
recharter of the United States Bank and to the charter of a 
national liank under President Tyler. He favored the main- 
tenance of the "Missouri Compromi.se" of 1.S20, and aggres- 
sively opposed its repeal, holding that all measures in that 
direction were ' ' fire brands, ' ' calculated to increase and embitter 
sectional prejudices, which might lead to disunion. 

The friend and defender of President Jack.son, he fully sus- 
tained him in his firm and unwavering course in regard to the 
"Nullification ordinance" passed by the State convention of 
South Carolina on November 24, 1S32. Against this nidlifi- 
cation ordinance President Jackson issued his celebrated and 
patriotic proclamation of December 10, 1832, and his message 



S/ir/i/rs of Tliomas //. Benton and Prancis P. Blair. 1 1 1 

to Coiitjress of Jamiar\- i6, 1833, lioth of which found in Mr. 
Bkxton" an ardent and able supporter. 

During the discussion of these and Mr. Callioun's nullifica- 
tion resolution Mr. Bentox formed the conclusion that Mr. 
Calhoun's ulterior object was the ilissolutiou of the Union, and 
was ever thereafter on the alert for any movement in that direc- 
tion and ready to combat it. 

On January 15, 1849, State Senator C. F. Jackson reported 
to the .senate of the general assembly of Mis.souri ' ' resolutions 
on the subject of slavery," known as the "Jack.son re.solu- 
tious," denying any right "on the part of Congress to legislate 
on the subject so as to aflect the institution of slavery in the 
States, in the District of Columbia, or in the Territories," and 
as.serting ' ' the right to prohibit slavery in any Territory belongs 
exclusively to the people thereof and can only be exercised by 
them in forming their constitution for a State government (.)r in 
their sovereign capacity as an independent State," and "that 
in the event of the passage of any act of Congress conflicting 
with the principles herein expre.s.sed, Missouri will be found in 
hearty cooperation with the slaveholding States in such meas- 
ures as may be found neces.sary for our nuitual protection 
against the encroachments of Northern fanaticism," and "that 
our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives 
be recjuested, to act in conformity to the foregoing resolutions." 

They were passed by the senate January 26, 1849 — yeas, 23; 
nays, 6 — and by the house March 6 — yeas, 53: nays 27— after 
warm and protracted debate in each body. 

Senator Benton's fifth term was to expire on March 3, 1S51, 
and he was a candidate for reelection. 

The resolutions were in direct conflict with the opinions of 
Colonel Bextox, ofttimes expressed during his service, and 
were advocated by many of those who were well-known ojipo- 
nents of Bextox, and then called anti-BKXTox Democrats. A 



112 .liM/rss of Mr. CockrcU on the Acccpiauce of the 

resolution was then passed requiring a copy of the resolutions to 
be transmitted to the executive of each State and to each of the 
Senators and Representatives from Missouri, aud was approved 
March lo, 1849. 

They were presented to the Senate of the United States hy 
Senator Atchison, of Missouri, on January 3, 1S50, and read 
by the Secretary and ordered printed. 

When read. Senator Benton addre.ssed the Senate, strongly 

opposing the jirinciples and policies therein expressed. He 

said: 

This i.s tlie proper time for me to say what I believe to be the fact, that 
the.se re.solutions do not e.xpre.ss the sentiments of the people of Missonri. 
They are a law-abiding and a Union-loving people, and have no idea of 
entering into combinations to resi.st or to intimidate the legislation of 
Congress. The general assembly has mistaken the sentiment of the State 
in adopting these resolutions, and many members who voted for them, and 
the governor who signed them, have since disavowed and repudiated them. 

Senator Atchison said: 

I have but one word to say, and that is merely to expre.ss an opinion 
that the people of the State of Missonri. when the time arrives, will prove 
to all mankind that every sentiment contained in the.se resolutions, from 
first to last, will be sustained by them. 

I quote from the History of Mi.ssouri, liy Col. William F. 
Switzler. one the oldest and most prominent newspaper editors 
of the State, then actively in politics and a Whig, who, in 
writing of the excitement over the passage of the resolutions, 
says: 

Tile popular ferment was much increased by the subsequent course of 
Colonel Benton. He opposed the resolutions, appealed from the legisla- 
ture to the people, and on the 26th of May, 1849, in the hall of the hou.se 
at Jefferson City, opened a canvass against them which set the State 
ablaze. He maintained that the spirit of nullification and disunion, of 
insubordination to law, and of treason lurked in the Jackson resolutions, 
especial! V in the fifth; that they were a mere copy of the Calhoun resolu- 
tions offered in the United States Senate February 19, 1847, and denounced 
by him at the time as firebrands and intended for disunion and electioneer- 
ing purpo.ses. 



Sfaiiies of 'f/ioiiias //. Beu/oii and Fraiiris P. lUair. 1 1 3 

He could see no difference between them but in the time conte}n])lateiI 
for dissolving the Union, Mr. Calhoun's tendinj; "direcllv" and the Jack- 
son Missouri resolutions "ultimately" to that point. He maintained they 
were in conflict with the Missouri Compromise of 1S20 and with the reso- 
lutions pas.sed by the Missouri legislature I'ebruary 15. 1S47, wherein it 
was declared that "the peace, permanency, and welfare of our National 
Union depend upon a .strict adherence to the letter and spirit" of that 
compromise, also instructing our Senators and Representatives in Con- 
gress on all questions which may come before them in relation to the 
organization of new Territories or States to vote in accordance with its 
provisions. He denounced them as entertaining the covert purixise of 
ultimately dissolving the National Union and of misleading the people of 
Missouri into cooperation with the slaveholding .States for that purpose. 

Dtiring his extensive canvass of the State in 1S49 he delivered 
nian\' able and exhaustive .speeches, often interspersed with 
bitter denunciatiotis and withering .sarca.sm. being master of 
both. 

The result was a division of the Democratic party, which for 
thirty years had loyally supported him. into two factions, usually 
called Benton and anti-Benton Democrats, and his defeat for 
reelection. 

After his service in the House of Representatives, March 4, 
1853, to March 3, 1855, ^nd his defeat for reelection in 1854, 
he was the candidate of his wing of the Democratic part>- for 
governor in 1856, and was defeated by Trusten Polk, of the 
anti-Benton wing. This was his la.st political campaign. 

He was a close, laborious, and constant sttident from boy- 
hood to his death, and acqtiired and po.ssessed a greater fund of 
information and knowledge, general and historical, than any 
statesman of our country, from which he drew largely in his 
discussions of all questions. 

Apace with his increasing years he grew in knowledge and 
foresight and in his uncompromising devotion to what he hon- 
estly believed to be the \-ery best interests of our conunon 
cotnitry and the toiling millions of our people, and was the 
friend of the people. Believing he was right, he never stopped 
S. Doc. 456 8 



114 .-i'MiTss of Mr. Cockrcll on iJic Acceptance of the 

to ciiuiit the strtiigth of the opposition, but moved to the attack 
with unyielding determination and renewed force. General 
Blaik was selected to deliver the address at the unveilin;;- of 
the Benton statne in St. Louis, and said of Mr. Bentom: 

He not only admired and believed in our form of government, liut he 
was of that Democratic school which insisted on restraining the Govern- 
ment in the exercise of its powers to a strict and literal interpretation of 
the Constitution, not only because they believed tfie framers of the Gov- 
ernment were wise and sag.icious men and knew how to employ language 
to describe the powers which thev sought to confer ira the Government, 
but thev were upon principle opposed to a strong government, and sought 
in every way to limit its powers and to make each of the different branches 
a check upon the others. They were profoundly convinced that ' ' the w( .rid 
was governed too much," and that the best government was that which 
least intermeddled with the affairs of the citizens. There never lived a 
man with more instinctive patrioti.sm than BENTON. He was a man of 
strong, sometimes of unruly, passions, but his paramount passion was love 
of country. 

He devoted to his country the best and ablest efforts of his 
life. 

His nntiriui; industr\' and close api^lication enabled him to 
complete the two volumes of Thirt>- Years in the United v^tates 
Senate, styled by him "The Thirty Years' View," and sixteen 
volumes of the Abridgement of the Debates in Cont^ress, from 
17S9 to 1856, both of which are in\-alualjle publications and 
will be read and referred to )>>■ students and statesmen in 
coming ages. He was strictly temperate in all his ha1)its — a 
splendid exemplar for the young men of our country. 

In his autobiograjihical .sketch in ' ' The Thirty Years' 

\'iew," referring to his entrance in the Senate, he writes: 

From that time his life was in the public eye and the bare enumeration 
of the measures of which he was the author and the prime mover would 
be almost a historv of Congress legislation. The eninneration is unneces- 
sarv iK're, the long list is known throughout the length and breadth of 
the land — repeated with the familiarity of household words from the 
great cities on the seaboard to the loneh' cabins ou the frontier — and 
studied by the little boys, who feel an honorable ambition beginning to 
stir within their bo.sonis and a laudable desire to learn something of the 
history of their country. 



Sfa flics of Thomas //. /icii/oii a)id I'raiicis P. lUair. 115 

These expressigiis of self-adulation may l)e overlooked in a 
statesman of his iniblemished character for inteijrily. his 
acknowledged abilities and attainments, and his useful, jtatri- 
otic, and illustrious career; while in men of smaller calil)er tliej- 
would become ridiculous and justly offensive. 

dreat as he was, str(jn!j;-willed and andiilious, he could not 
in his yoiniger days divest himself of the inlluence of his envi- 
ronments and restrain his aii^er. He was imbued with a fear- 
lessness and courage, physical and moral, never (luestioned, 
and became involved in personal difficulties about which I 
qtiote from his autobiography. 

Whilf in the earlv pari uf lift-- at Na.-iliviUe and ,il St. Lonis dnrls and 
affrays were common, and the youn<; Hknton had hi.s sliare of them. 
A 'very violent affray between liimself and brother on one .side and 
General Jackson and .some friends on the other, in which severe pistol 
and dagger wounds were given, but fortunately without loss of life; and 
the onlv use for which that violent collision now finds a reference is in its 
total oblivion by the parties and the cordiality with which they acted 
together for the public good in their subsecjuent long and intimate career. 
A duel at St. lA>uis ended fatally, of which Colonel liUNTON has not been 
heard to speak except amon.g intimate friends and to tell of the pang 
which went through his heart when he saw the young man fall, and 
would have given the world to see him restored to life. .Xs the proof of 
the manner in which lie looks upon all these scenes and his desire to 
burv all remembrance of them forever he has had all the papers burned 
which relate to them, that no future curiosity or industry shoulrl bring to 
light what he wishes had never Iiappened. 

Colonel BknTOX was married, after becoming Senator, to Elizabeth, 
daughter of Col. James McDowell, of Rockbridge County, Va., and of 
Sarah, his wife, i)orn Sarah Preston. 

Of his wife he says: 

She was a woman of singidar merit, judgment, elevation of character, 
and regard for every social duty, crowned by a life-long connection with 
the church in which she was bred—the Presbyterian Old School. Mrs. 
Benton died in 1S54, having been struck with paralysis in 1844, and from 
that time her husband was never known to go to any place of festivity or 
amusement. 



Ii6 Address of Mr. Cockrcll on the Acceptance of tlie 

Of his devotion to his wife I <iuote from General Blair's 

address: 

I trust that I mav not V)e t)ioiiglit tu tread on ground too lioly in 
alluding to the gentle care, the touching solicitude, with which he 
guarded the last feeble pulses of life in her who was the pride and glory 
of his young ambition, the sweet ornament of his mature fame, and best 
love of his ripened age. 

Full of years, full of honors, this illustrious statesman, on 
April lo, 1858, in this cit>-, passed away from the earthly 
.scenes of his combats and triumphs to life immortal, mourned 
l)y a nation. 

FRAN'CI.S PRESTON BLAIR. 

Mr. President, it is eminently pnjper that the statue of Bl.mr 
should stand by the side of Bp;.\'Ton's. Blair was his most 
trusted friend and delivered the address on the occasion of the 
unveiling of the .statue erected to his memory in vSt. I^ouis. 

Frx\ncis Preston Blair was born in Lexington, Ky., on 
the 19th day of February, 1821, and bore his father's honored 
name. 

When he was 9 years old his father removed from Lexington, 
Ky., to this city to assume editorial control of the Globe news- 
paper, the organ of President Jack.son's Admini.stration. He 
attended Chapel Hill College, North Carolina, and afterwards 
graduated from Princeton College, studied law in this city, and 
then returned to Kentnck>' and continued his studies in the 
office of Louis Marshall. His health failing, he visited his 
brother, Montgomery Blair, in St. Louis — afterwards Postmas- 
ter-General under President Lincoln — and then returned to 
Kentucky and graduated from Transylvania University law 
.school. He then opened a law office in vSt. Louis and there 
ever after made his home. 

His health again failing, he made a trip to the Rocky Moiui- 
tains. and in 1845 accompanied Bent and St. \'rain to their 



S//i///ts of TIto>uas n. Ben /on and Francis P. Blair. 1 1 7 

post in New Mexico, now Colormlo, and was there when the 
war with Mexico began and took an acti\e jiart in the niihtary 
operations nnder Gen. .Stephen W. Kearny. 

On Angust 22, 1S46, General Kearn\- issned his remarkable 
])r(iclaniation. after havini; taken possession of the cajiital — 
Santa Fe — of the Department of New Mexico on August iS. 

On September 22, 1846, he put)li,shed an "Organic law for 
the Territory of New Mexico, ctimpiled tnider the (hrection of 
(jeneral Kearnw" and on the s.ime day wrote to the Adjutant- 
General, saying: 

I take great pleasure in .stating that I am entirely indebted for these 
laws to Col. A. \V. Doniphan, of the Fir.st Regiment of Missouri Mounted 
Volunteers, who received nuicli assistance from Private Willard P. Hall, 
of his regiment. 

On the same day he a])pointed a go\-ernor and other officers, 
among them "Fr.vxcis P. Blaik, to be United States district 
attorney." 

If he ever accepted the ajipointment, he only held it for a 
few days, as Hugh X. Smith was a]ipointed to that po.sition on 
October I, 1846, and claims to have .acted for two years and 
four months, although the offices of United States district 
attorney and marshal "were considered as aboli.shed by in- 
structions from the War Department bearing date January 

II, I.S47." 

In 1847 he returned and resumed the practice of his pro- 
fession, and married Miss A]iolline Alexander, of Woodford 
County, Ky., on September 8, 1847. 

In 1 85 2 he was elected a representati\-e from St. Uouis in the 
Seventeenth general assembly of Missouri, and was reelected in 
1S54, and was again elected in 1S70. 

In 1856 he was elected a Representative in Congre.ss as a 
Republican, and was in 185S a candidate for reelection and 
was defeated by J. R. Barrett, Democrat, and contested Mr. 
Barrett's election, and was given the seat June 8, 1S60, by yeas 



ii8 Address of Mr. Cockrcll on the Aeceplaiiee of the 

93, nays 91, and served until tliat session (if tlie Thirt>-sixth 
Congress adjovirned, June 25, 1.S60. Feeling himself vindi- 
cated, he resigned his seat for the remainder of the term — 
the last session of the Thirty-sixth Congress. 

In the siunnier of i860, in the election tor the remainder of 
the term in the Thirty-sixth Congress and for the full term in 
the T^iirt},--seventh Congress, he was defeated by Mr, Barrett 
for the short term and elected by a large majority over Mr. 
Barrett for the term in the Thirty-se\x*nth Congress, and was 
reelected to the Thirt>--eightli Congress, March 4, 1S63, to 
March 3, 1S65. His election was contested lix' Mr. Samuel 
Knox, who was on June iii, 1.S64, declared entitled to the 
seat by yeas 70, nays 53, and was sworn in and .seated June 
15. This contest was pending in the House from the begin- 
uing of the session. 

When the session began Bl.\ik was a major-general uf vol- 
unteers in the field, commanding a corps, and about the last 
days of Octol.ier, 1S63, his brother, Hun. .Montgomery Blair, 
consulted Presideut Lincoln as to his wishes whether General 
Bl.\ik should take his seat in Congress or remain in the field. 

On November 2, 1S63, President Lincoln wrote Hon. Mont- 
gomer\- Blair: 

My wish, then, is compounded of wh.it I believe will be lie.st for thi- 
country and Ijest for him, and it is that he will come here, put his military 
comtnission in my hands, take his seat, i<o into caucus with our friends, 
abide the nominations, help elect the nominees, and thus aid to organize 
a House of Representatives which will really support the Government in 
the war. If the result shall be the election of himself as Speaker, let him 
serve in that position ; if not, let him retake his connnission and return to 
the Army. ■ * * He is rising in military skill and usefulness. His 
recent appointment to the command of a corps by one so competent to 
judge as General vSherman proves this. In that line he can serve both the 
country and himself more profitalily than he could as a member of Con- 
j^ress upon the Hour. The foregoing is what I would say if Frank Bl.^ir 
were ni\' brother instea<l of vours. 



S/a//u's ()/ Tlio))tas H. Bciilon ami I-rancis J'. lUair. 119 

General Blair, on January i, 1864, tendered his resii^iiation 
as a major-general, I'nited States Volunteers, which was ac- 
cepted January 12. 1864. 

On March 15, 1S64. President Lincoln suggested to Lieuten- 
ant-General Grant the assignment of General Hlair to the 
command of a corps. On March 30 General Grant telegraphed 
General Sherman: "Gen. F. P Bl.\ir will be assigned to the 
Seventeentli Corps, and not the Fifteenth." ()n .\])ril 9, 
General Grant telegraphed General Halleck, chief of staff, to 
ascertain if General Bl.\ir was to be sent to General Sherman. 

On Ajiril 20 General Bl-VIR wrote to President Lincoln re- 
questing assignment t(.) the connnand of the Seventeenth Corps, 
and on the 21st the President referred the same to " Honoral)le 
Secretary of War; Please have General Halleck make the 
proper order in this case." 

On April 23 General Bl.vir wrote the Secretary of War: 

I respectfulh- request to withdraw my resignation as major-general of 
the United States Vohmteers, tendered on the 12th day of January, 1S64. 

And President Lincoln wrote the Secretary of War April 23; 

According to our understanding with JIaj. Gen. Fr.\nk P. Bl.vir at the 
time he took liis seat in Congress last winter, he now asks to withdraw his 
resignation as major-.general, then tendered, and be sent to the field. Let 
this be done. Let the order sending him be such as shown me to-daj- by 
the Adjutant-General, only dropping from it the names of Ma.guire and 
Tompkins. 

The order assigning him to the Seventeenth Army Corps was 
made that day. 

The records of the War Department show "that Fr.vxk P. 
Blair was mustered into service to take effect April 26, 1861, 
as colonel First Missouri Militia, to .serve three years. This 
regiment was reorganized as the First Mi.ssouri Infantry \'olun- 
teers, and Colonel Bl.air was mu.stered into service with tlie 
regiment upon its reorganization, Jiuie 26, 1861, to take effect 



I20 Address of Mr. Cockre/l on the Acceptance of the 

June 12, 1 86 1, to serve three years. After this muster hito 
service as colonel for three years, he repaired to Washington, 
D. C, and took his seat as a member of Con.a:ress from the 
State of Mis.souri July 4, i,S6i, and .ser\-ed as chairman of the 
Committee on Militar\- Affairs, House of Representatives. It 
does not appear that he thereafter rejoined his regiment, the 
designation of which was changed September or October, i86i, 
to the First Regiment Missouri Ught Artillery. 

"(In July 4, i,S62, the Secretary of War authorized him 
to organize a Itrigade of volunteers, and he was appointed 
brigadier-general of volunteers August 7, 1S62, and accepted 
the appointment August 21, 1S62. He was commissioned 
major-general of \-olunteers March 13, 1863, to rank from 
November 29, 1862, and accepted the commission .\]iril 6, 
1863, and was honoraljly di.scliarged the ser\-ice, to take effect 
November i, 1S65, in orders dated October 28, 1865, njion 
tender of his resignation. 

"During the period of his service as brigadier-general and 
major-general of volunteers he was in connnand of the First 
Brigade, Fourth Division, Right Wing, Thirteenth Army Corps, 
of the First Brigade, First Division, Fifteenth Arni>- Corjis, of 
the Seventeenth Army Corps, and of the Department of Mis- 
souri, i)articipating in the siege of Vicksbnrg and of Atlanta 
and in Sherman's march to the sea. A leave of ab.sence was 
granted him September 15, 1864, and during the remainder of 
September and the month of October, 1864, he was engaged in 
organizing the defenses of the city of St. Louis, Mo." 

March 14, 1866, he was nominated by President Johnson for 
collector of internal revenue. First Missouri di.strict, and his 
nomination referred to connnittee March 16, 1S66, and reported 
favorably by Senator Fessenden April 10, and rejected .Mav 4, 
1866 — j-eas 8, nays 21. 



Sta/iies of TJiomas H. Bniloii and Francis I\ Blair. 121 

On Marcli 25, 1S67, President Jolnison sent his nomination 
for minister to Atistria to the Senate, vice Edgar Cowan, 
rejected. .Senator Sumner on the same da\- reported the 
nomination adversely, and it was rejected March 28 — yeas 5, 
nays 35. 

He was afterwards appointed a commissioner of the Pacific 
Railroad, of the construction of which he had always been an 
able and earnest advocate. At the national Democratic con- 
vention at New York, in the summer of 186S. he was nomi- 
nated for \'ice-Pre.sident of the United .States on the ticket with 
Governor Horatio Seymour for President, and was defeated. 
Elected to the general assembly of Mis.sonri in 1S70, which met 
in 187 1, he was in the .same month elected tf) fill the vacancy 
in the United States Senate cau.sed by the resignation on 
December 13, 1S70, to take effect on December 19, 1870, of 
Senator Charles D. Drake, to accept an appointment to the 
Court of Claims. 

He was sworn in and took his seat in the Senate on January 
25, 187 1, for the unexpired term ending March 3, 1S73. He 
participated actively in behalf of Horace Greeley for Pre.sident 
and H. Ciratz Brown for \'ice-Presidenl in the campaign of 
1872. 

On November 16, 1872, he was .stricken down by paralv.sis, 
from which he uever recovered. 

Largely, if not entireh', owing to his stricken condition he 
was defeated for reelection to the Senate in Jaiuiars-, 1873. 

There were three distictively marked periods in the life of 
General Blair which make him illustrious for historic renown 
and for distinguished civic services. 

The first period extends to the beginning of the civil war, 
the second to the close of that war, and the third to his death. 

He was a Southern man bj- birth, family connection, and 



122 Address of Mr. Cockrcll o)i tlw Acceptance of the 

residence; the young friend of President Jackson, during whose 
Administration he was of the susceptible and formative age, 
and imbibed largely of his views on national and political cpies- 
tions. He was the friend of. and unfaltering in his devotion 
to, the principles and policies of Benton, whose mantle fell 
upon his shoulders — a Democrat of the Jackson, Benton, and 
\'an Buren school. 

In 1S4.S, when the " Wilnint ])ri>\'is(i" agitated the country, 
he took a decided stand in favor of the free-soil movement and 
against the nominees of the Democratic part}- for President and 
Vice-President, opposed the extension of slavery, and argued 
and lal)ored to remove slavery from Missouri. 

He warndy espoused the cause of Benton in his appeal from 
the Jackson resolutions to the people, and in 1S52 was elected to 
the legislature on the Benton ticket. In 1856 he was elected 
to Congress as a Republican from a slave vState. 

He fearlessly maintained his opposition to slavery extension 
and advocacy of removing slavery- from Mis.souri. notwithstand- 
ing the cen.sure and obloquy attached to such a course in a slave 
State, and established a high character far moral courage and 
great ability. 

His greatest prescience and force of character were made 
manifest when the lowering clouds of civil war portended a dis- 
solution of the Union. Equally with Jackson and Benton, 
uncomjiromising in his devotion to the Union and in opposition 
to nullification or secession, he foresaw plainh' that war was 
inevitable and began preparations in advance of hostilities and 
organized the "Wideawakes" in St. Louis, and other forces. 
He was the soul, the will, the controlling power of the Union 
men in Missouri, determined at all hazards and all risks that 
Missouri shcjuld stand Ijy the llnion. 

Believing that the .State atlministration, under Go\-ernor 



S/a///rs of Tliontas If. Bciilon and /'raiicis /'. Blair. 123 

ClaiboriK' !•'. jai'ksoii. who had, as a Slate seiiainr, iL-])i>rlL'(l 
the Jackrion rcsohiliotis, was aiiiiinvc to lead Missouri into 
cooperation with the seceding; States, .and h.i\-in,t; the eonfi- 
deuce of President Lincohi, ht- determined to (hive the admin- 
istration from the State, .and, as the adxiser and coleader with 
(leneial L\'on, the Uniteil vStates Anii\- officer ]5laced in com- 
mand through his influence, had United vStates forces marched 
into Missouri from .St. Louis, as the center, and from Leaven- 
worth, K.ans., on the west, and quickly occuiiied the railroails 
and the Missouri River. He to a greater extent than any 
other man held Mis.souri in allegiance to the Union and caused 
her to contibute to the Union armies lo.S.jjn .soldiers ( a greater 
niunlier than an\- of the States except New York, Pennsyl\-a; 
Ilia, Ohio, Illinois. Indiana, and Ma.s.sachtisetts), as brave and 
fearless as those from any State and surpassed by none. 

Not only this, but by the heroic movements he inspired 
Missouri was ])revented from cooperation with the secedin.g 
States to the full extent of the sympathy of her jieople. 

During the four long, weary years of that war of the wars of 
all the ages, when the citizen .soldiers met each other in fierce 
combat, with father a.gainst son. brother against brother, neigh- 
bor against neighbor, and friend against friend, all true to their 
honest convictions, Bi.air never said ".go," but always "come." 

He displayed remarkable military abilities and skill, and 
justly rose to the highest rank in the \-ohniteer ser\-ice. sur- 
passed b>- none and equaled onl>- by one — Maj. (rcn, John .\. 
Logan . 

With the close of the war began the third marked epoch in 
General I5i..\ik's illustrious career, din-ing which he dis])la\-ed 
a UKjral coura.ge and heroism equal to if not greater than that 
displayed at the beginning of the war. 

A State convention assembled in JelTerson City September i, 
iSf)-:;, and passed resolutions reiiuesting Governor Gamble and 



124 Address of Mr. Cockrcll on llic Acceptance ot the 

Lieutenant-Governor Hall to vacate their positions and urging 
the President to remove General Schofield from the command 
of the department, and appointed a connnittee of seventy to 
present their grievances to the President. 

The committee presented their address to the President on 
September 30, 1863, and four supplementary addresses on 
October 3. The President replied on Octoljer 5. The 
demands, as epitomized by the President in his reph, were: 

First. That General Scliofield .should be relieved and (ieneral liutler be 
appointed as commander of the military department of Mis.souri. 

Second. That the sy.stem of enrolled militia in Missouri .should be 
broken up and national forces substituted for it. 

Third. That at elections persons might not be allowed to vi:)te who 
were not entitled by law to do so. 

The President's reply shows clearh' the conditions then and 
sub.sequeiitly existing in Missouri. He .said: 

We are in civil war. In .such cases there always is a main question: 
but in this case that question is a perplexing compound— Union and 
slavery. It thus becomes a cjuestion not of two sides merely, but of at 
least four sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing 
of those who are against it. Thus, those who are for the Union zoitli but 
not n'itlioitt s\a.\er\, those for it ivillioiit but not -ccitli, those for it loitti or 
ivitliont but prefer it until, and those for it ivitti or luitlwiit but prefer it 
ZL'itlunit. Among these, again, is a subdivision of those who are for 
gradual but not for immediate, and those who are for imiiiedialc but 
not ior xiaditat extinction of .slavery. 

It is easy to conceive that all these .shades of opinion, and even more, 
ma}' be sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men. Yet all being 
for the Union, by reason of the.se differences each will prefer a different 
wa\' of sustaining the Union. At once sincerity is questioned and motives 
assailed. Actual war coming, blood grows hot and blood is spilled. 
Thought is forced from old channels into confusion. Deception breeds 
and thrives. Confidence dies, and universal suspicion reigns. Each man 
feels an impulse to kill his neighbor lest he be killed by him. Revenge 
and retaliation follow. And all this, as before said, may be among honest 
men only. But this is not all. Kvcry foul bird comes abroad, and every 
dirty reptile rises up. These add crnne to confusion. Strong measures, 
deemed indispensable but harsh at best, such men make worse by malad- 
ministration. Murders for old grudges and murders for pelf proceed 



Statues of n>0))ias II. Bfiitoii aint Francis P. Blair. 125 

under any cloak that will best cover for the occasion. These causes 
amply account for what has occurred in Missouri, without ascribing; it to 
the weakness or wickedness of any general. 

The President refused the first and second demands and con- 
curred in the third. The bitterness and contentions among the 
rnioii men, dividetl into Conservatives and Radicals, stibse- 
([uenth- called Democrats and Republicans, increa.sed. So, also, 
between the Union and Southern men. On January 6, 1865, a 
State constitutional convention as.sembled in St. Louis, adopted 
an ordinance abolishing slavery in Missouri, which as a prac- 
tical fact had cea.sed to exist iox some time jirevious, and 
adopted a constitution to be submitted to a vote of the people 
on June 6, 1865, for adoption or rejection, which was adopted 
by 43,670 votes for to 41,808 against it; majority, 1,862. The 
convention adjourned April 10, 1S65. 

This constitution by proclamation of the go\-ernor took effect 
Julv 4, 1S65, was called the Drake constitution, from Hon. 
Charles I). Drake, vice-president of the convention, and its 
reputed author. 

It contained the most stringent and proscriptive provisions 
in regard to the test oaths recjuired of voter.s — persons capable 
of holding any office or po.sition of honor, trust, or profit. State, 
corporate, municipal, institutional, or fiduciary, and of attor- 
neys, and teachers in our schools, male and female, and even 
ministers of the gospel of peace and good will. 

General Blair took a bold and fearless stand again.st such 
measures and all proscription, refused to take the oath in order 
to vote, and brought suit in the courts to test his right. With 
General Bl.VIR the I'nion was the main question. When the 
Union arms had triumiihed, an indissoluble Union of inde- 
structil)le States had been .secured, secession with slavery and 
all opposition to the Union had been forever buried in the 



126 Adifrrss of Mr. Cockrcll on tlic Acceptance of tlic 

grave of the dead Confederacy beyond resurrection, and din- 
old flag waved in honor, .t^lory, and power from ocean to 
ocean, and from the Lakes ti> the Gulf, every tongue con- 
fessing and ever>- knee liowing to its peaceful and rightful 
sway. General Blaik l)elieved that humanity, Christianity, 
the wi.sest statesmanship, as well as the very best interests 
of our common countrv, demanded peace, reconciliation, and 
fraternity, that the wounds and bruises of the war might be 
healed, its wastes and devastations repaired, and our people. 
North and South, East and West, become one people, citizens 
of oiu" common countr\' in fact as in law, with like sympathies, 
feelings, aspirations, interests, and rights. He did not believe 
that proscription was the proper method to such ends. 

He warmly supported General Grant's intercession in behalf 
of General Lee and other paroled Confederate officers and 
soldiers on the ground that their paroles, so long as they 
obeyed the laws, protected them from arrest and trial. 

General Blair's efforts to restore to the pro.scribed jieople <.)f 
Missouri equal rights of citizenship were equally as heroic and 
fearless as were his efforts to preserve the integrit>' of the Union 
and to overthrow all opposition to it. 

vSo intense and embittered were the feelings of the extreme 
radical element in many comities that freedom of public dis- 
cussion did not exist, and ]iublic meetings were broken up and 
threats made that no Democrat should address them. 

General Blair, in the early summer of iS66, made a .series 
of .speeches in man>- different counties in Missouri. At many 
places efforts were made to break up his meetings and prevent 
him speaking and even to take him from the stand. He never 
quailed nor flinched, but boldly and defiantly denounced tho.se 
creating the disturbances in the bitterest and most withering 
terms, and never failed to speak as long as he chose and to say 



S/a//t<s of TlioDias H. Ihiiton and Francis P. HI air. 127 

whatever he pleased, and by these efforts removed every hin- 
drance to the utmost freedom of public disciissiou ever there- 
after. I refer to these incidents in his illustrious life to show 
his heroic aiul courag^eous nature and Iiis uncompromising 
devotion to what he believed to be right, and not to revive the 
dead embers of hate and bitterness engendered by that fratri- 
cidal war. for "anathema maranatha" be to him who woidd 
rekindle the dead embers of hate and sectional animosities. 

In addressing a large public audience in Memphis, Teini., on 
September 20, 1866, Cieneral Bl.vir said: 

The utmost freedom of ))iiblic discussion is the rock upon which all 
true liberty is founded. If that great bulwark is overthrown, or if public 
speakers seek only to express such views as are in accordance with ])ublic 
sentiment, the way is thrown wide open to the destruction of every guar- 
anty of freedom. Hence I regard it as unworthy of myself and especially 
dishonoring to you to attempt an apology for anything I may advance 
because it may not meet your concurrence. 

General Bl.vir was a dutiful son, a loving, faithful husband, 
a kind and affectionate father, a true, steadfast friend, generous 
to a fault and often to his pecuniary loss, genial and attractive 
in his personality, forceftd and impressive as a speaker, per- 
sonally and officially honest and incorruptible, without even 
the su.s])icion of a stain upon his integrity. 

He was open, frank, bold, and aggressive in the expression 
of his views and the ad\'ocacy of his principles, whether jiopular 
or ol)no.Kiotis at the time, and yet so tempered them with geni- 
ality and magnanimity that few could keep from atlmiring him 
and few indeed were his personal enemies. 

The good people of Missouri have erected a jjure standard 
bronze statue of General Hl.mk in b'orest Park, .St. I.ouis, of 
heroic .size, to perpetuate the remembrance and appreciation of 
his great abilities and his distinguished .services to otir connnon 
coimtry and to his adopted .State. 



128 AiMrcss of Mr. Cockrcll on the Accrplaiicf of ilic 

I quote from the address of Rev. Dr. T. M. Post on tlie occa- 
sion of the unveiling of that statue: 

Happy is it when, from .<in lieroic grave, there i.s an ontlook to the land 
immortal, and loyalt_y to country is consummated in loyalty to God -happy 
for our personal love and for our hope for our countr\-. We believe a 
truth from a higher world came to our friend in that solenni, serene, and 
utterly real realm that lay, through months and seasons, liefore the open 
gates of the Everlasting; that in those .solemn hours when time's .shadows 
flee away and its pomp and pride are but pageants of a passing dream voices 
came to him from out eternity and the Highest revealed Himself, and 
that the lesson and confession of allegiance to the Eternal One came in 
to correct and consummate the utterances of his life. That le.s.son and 
confession are among the things that shall not pass awav. The heroic 
form typed by yonder ; 'ntue years ago crumbled into dust, the bronze 
and the granite .shall in time follow; but this Ia.st utterance is above and 
beyond change, a truth and a force which, we trust, .shall blend with the 
destinies of this nation forever. 



Siaiucs of Thomas II. Benton and Francis P. Blair. 129 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. President, it is hardly necessary, after the wonderfully 
eluquent and ample tribute in memory of these two sons of 
Missouri, that any other voice should be heard. I have been 
asked, however, because, as I suppose, I represent in part that 
section of the Union farthest in situation and farthest in opinion 
from the jjeople whom Benton loved and served, to say a few 
words in support of the resolution, and especially with reference 
to him. 

The statute of 1862 which sets apart the beautiful chamljer 
in the Capitol as a gallery for the statues of famous citizens 
leaves the selection to the absolute discretion of the States. 
But the whole country approves the choice of Missouri. 

The whole country remembers freshly the great career, the 
chivalrous character, the dauntless spirit of Bl.mk. But when 
the figure of Benton is unveiled the genius of Missouri — 
rather, the genius of the West — has come. He is to stand 
among his peers, the rejiresentative, the embodiment, of a 
great history. He remembered the men of the Revolution. 
He was born before the war of the Revolution ended. He 
lived to greet Charles Sumner when he came into the Senate, 
to sun,-ive all the great leaders of the time before the war, and 
to .see the sure signs of the coming conflict of arms between 
freedom and slavery. 

Missouri did well that she waited nearly half a century after 
his death before electing him to the greater and perpetual 
Senate, which is to sit forever in yonder chamber. It would 
be well if this example were always followed. No party spirit, 
no influence of friendship, no mere personal gratitude, no tem- 
porary or fleeting popularity' has influenced the choice. We 
S. Doc. 456 9 



130 Address 0/ Mr. Hoar on the Acceptance of the 

know now what manner of man Missouri, by her deHberate 
choice, delighteth to honor and what manner of man the Amer- 
ican people dehght to honor. 

Thomas H. Benton was a .sturdy and courageous champion. 
He understood, as no other man ever understood, the interest 
of the great West. He is, beyond all question, without com- 
petitor or rival down to this moment, the foremost statesman 
of the States beyond the Mississippi. From 1820 to 1850 he 
was one of the four great leaders of the Senate. If in some 
special quality he was surpa,ssed by each of the great trium- 
virate — Webster, Clay, Calhoun — yet neither of these men, 
perhaps not all to.gether, exerted so powerful an influence upon 
the action of the Senate or of the people during that time. He 
was industrious, wa.sting no moment of time: earnest and inde- 
fatigable, pressing like a steel spring upon the armor of his 
opponent; trying every joint; sure to find the weak .spot; 
untiring; courageous, never shrinking or flinching from the 
face of any antagonist; unselfish, striving for the public .good 
as he understood it; loving his people, loving his State and 
section and coiuitry, with a supreme and mo.st di.sinterested love. 

The statesman or the student of historj' to-day can investi- 
gate few subjects which interested the people during the first 
sevent}' years of our liLstory under the Constitution without 
coming upon the work of Benton. By three or four things, 
however, he is .specially known to his coiuitrvmen and will 
keep his place in their undying memory. One is his passionate 
personal attachment and devotion to Andrew Jackson. Another 
is his belief in a monej' of intrinsic value, gold and .silver, and 
his utter detestation and contempt for any substitute of paper 
or credit. Another is his attachment to the union of the 
States, an attachment which no party feeling, no feeling as a 
Southern man, ever for a moment weakened or impaired. 



S/ii/ius of Thomas H. B tit /on and I-'rancis P. JUair. 131 

Another was his brave resistance in his early hfe to the great 
intellectual champions who were arrayed asjainst him in the 
Senate; and a resistance, braver still, in his old age, to the 
currents of popular delirium which swept away his own State 
and his own party into the attempt to extend slavery, and what 
he deemed a wicked anil unconstitutional war against Mexico. 
He was eminently a man of the people. He liked popular 
applause. He was a man of inten.se partj- .spirit. Yet he was 
able to stand alone. He had his foibles, to which his distin- 
gui.shed siicces.sor [Mr. \'est] has so well alluded; but, after 
all, there was never an American citizen to whom that tribute 
of the Latin poet, often quoted, but which we may well repeat, 
would better appl>-: 

"Justaui ac tenaceiii propositi virum 
Noll civiuiii ardor ])rava jubciitiuni 
Noil vultus inslanti.s tyranni 

Mente quatit solida, neque .duster, 
Du.\ inqiiieti lurbidus Hadriof, 
Nee Fuliiiinantis magna manus Jovis; 
Si fractus illabatur orbis, 
Itiii)avidum ferient ruince." 

" InU'jjer vitw .scelerisqiie purus." 

" Cui I'lKlor, et Justiti^ sorer, 
Incomipta I-i<les. iuulac|iie Veritas 
Quatuio ulluni inveiiiet pareiii?" 

He loved Mis,souri. He loved the West. He loved the 
South. From his coming into public life — indeed, from his 
first coming to manhood — there was scarcely a pulsation of 
the popular Western heart which he did not share. Yet when 
the time came for him to choose between office, party, his State, 
popularity, the love of old friends and companions, influence, 
power, the master passions of his soul, as it seemed, on the one 
hand, and freedom and country upon the other, he did not 



132 Address 0/ Mr. Hoar on tlic Acceptance 0/ the 

hesitate in the choice. His latest biographer, Governor Roose- 
velt, describes the conditions that confronted Benton when the 
decline of his life came on. Bentox liad resisted what to mo.st 
men in a republic is irresistible — the passions excited by a great 
war, the stirring and excited appeals to the love of the flag, the 
Anglo-Saxon greed for empire, as well as the spirit of a party 
of which he had been, for more than a generation, the greate.st 
leader in the State of which he was the brightest ornament and 
foremost citizen. 

Governor Roose\-eIt, writing in 1S95, a little more than four 
years ago, described the public feeling which Mr. Benton had 
to encounter, and gives due praise to the lofty and noble 
courage with which he encountered it. He says: 

The uiKii of the West stood where he was because he was a conqueror: 
he had wrested his land b}- force from its rightful Indian lords: he fully 
intended to repeat the same feat as soon as he .should reach the Spanish 
lands lying to the west and southwest; he would have done so in the 
case of French Louisiana if it had not been tliat the latter was pur- 
chased and wa.'i thus saved from being taken bj' force of arms. This 
belligerent or, more properly speaking, piratical way of looking at neigh- 
boring territory was verj- characteri.stic of the West and was at the root 
of the doctrine of "manifest destiny." 

Governor Roosevelt goes on: 

The general feeling in the West upon this last subject afterwards 
crystallized into what became known as the "manifest destiny" idea, 
which, reduced to its simplest terms, was that it was our manifest destinj- 
to swallow up the land of all adjoining nations who were too weak to 
withstand us; a theory that forthwith obtained immense popularity 
among all statesmen of easy international morality. 

Governor Roosevelt states Mr. Benton's doctrine upon this 

question, and the doctrine of the conscience and morality of die 

American people of that day, as follows: 

Of course no one would wish to see these, or any other settled communi- 
ties, now added to our domain by force; we want no unwilling citizens to 
enter our Union; the time to have taken the lands was before settlers came 
into them. European nations war for the possession of thickly .settled dis- 
tricts, which, if conquered, will for centuries remain alien and hostile to 
the conquerors; we, wiser in our generation, have seized the waste soli- 
tudes that lay near us, the limitless forests and never-ending plains, and 



Sla/i'ics of 'fhoiiias H. Boitoii and Francis P. Blair. 133 

the valleys of the great, lonely rivers, and have thrust our own sons into 
them to take possession; and a score of years after each conquest we see 
the conquered land teeming with a people that is one with ourselves. 

Governor Roosevelt states this issue between imperialism, or, 
as he terms it, "the piratical way of looking at neighboring 
territory by statesmen of easy international moralit\'," on the 
one side, and Republicanism on tlie other, as represented by 
Mr. Clav on the one hand and Mr. Polk on the other. He 



Almost everv good element in the country stood behind Clay; the vast 
majoritv of intelligent, high-minded, upright men supported him. 

He adds: 

Three men — Calhoun, Birney, and Isaiah Rynders — may be taken as 
types of the classes that were chiefly instrumental in the election of 
Polk, and that must therefore bear the responsibility for all the evils 
attendant thereon, including among them the bloody and unrighteous 
war with Mexico. 

The worthy biographer quotes, with emphatic approbation, 

Bextox's indignant denunciation, when the Mexican war was 

' approaching, of the want of manliness in our treatment of a 

weak repnlilic. He .says: 

Would we take 2,000 miles of Canada in the same way? I presume 
not. And why not? Why not treat Great Britain and Mexico alike? 
Wh}- not march up to " fifty -four-forty " as courageously as we marched 
upon the Rio Grande? Because Great Britain is powerful and Mexico is 
weak, a reason which may fail in policy as much as in morals. 

Mr. Bextox himself adds upon this subject: 

I am against all disguise and artifice, against all pretexts, and espe- 
cially weak and groundless pretexts, discreditable to ourselves and offen- 
sive to others; too thin and shallow not to be seen through by every 
beholder, and merely invented to cover unworthy ])nrposes. 

Governor Roosevelt .speaks of this period of Bextox's life 

with zealous and eloquent approbation. He saj's: 

He had now entered on what may be fairly called the heroic part of his 
career; for it would be difficult to choose any other word to express our 
admiration for the unflinching and defiant courage with which, supported 
onl\- by con.science and b\' his loving loyalty to the Union, he battled for 
the losing side, although by so doing he jeopardized and eventually ruined 



134 Address of Mr. Hoar on the Acceptance of the 

his political prospects, being finally, as punishment for his boldness in 
opposing the dominant faction of the Missouri Democracy, turned out of 
the Senate, wherein he had passed nearly half his life. Indeed, he was 
one of those natures that show better in defeat than in victory. 

Mr. Bknto.n's opposition to the- Mexican war was followed 

by his opposition after it ended to any form of the extension 

of .slavery, which he declared he deemed an evil and " would 

neither adopt it nor inifxise it on others." 

Wlien the fugitive-slave act of 1S50 was passed, through the help of some 
Northern votes, Bextox refused to support it; and this was the last act of 
importance that he performed as a I'nited States Senator. He had risen 
and grown .steadily all through his long term of .service; and during its 
last period he did greater service to the nation than any of his fellow- 
Senators. * * * He alwa}'s rose to meet a really great emergency'; he 
kept doing continually better work throughout his term of public service, 
or showed himself able to rise to a higher le\'el at the very end than at the 
beginning. 

This is the character, Mr. President, which the great State of 
Missotiri, speakintj throngh her governor and honored Senators, 
gives to the American people to-day, in this time of her sober 
second thought, as the best .she has to offer. If it be the best 
she have to offer, no other State surely has anything better. 
We are likely to receive nothing better from any quarter. Cer- 
tainly Massachu.setts feels henself and her great children of the 
days of the Puritan and the days of the Revolution honored b\' 
the companionship. Sam Adams, if need be, will draw a 
thought more nigh to John W'inthroi) to make room for him. 
Webster will greet his old antagonist. The marble li])s of 
Charles Sumner, whom Bextox welcomed in the vSenate in 
185 1, will return the greeting now from yonder statelv ante- 
chamber. The old strifes are forgotten. The old differences 
have vanished. But the love of liberty, the love of justice, the 
love of national honor, the spirit that prizes liberty and justice 
and honor above gain or trade or empire — the spirit of this 
great statesman of the West — abides and shall abide forever 
more. 



Stalucs of Thomas H. Benton a)id Francis P. B/air. 135 



Address of Mr, Elkins, of West Virginia. 

Mr. President, reared and educated in Missouri, I feel a deep 
interest in everything which concerns that great Common- 
wealth. Added to this, because of my father's great loyalty 
to and admiration for Mr, BenTON I wear his honored name, 
I feel, partly for this rea.son and others, that I can not allow 
this occasion which helps perpetuate his fame to pass without 
a word from me. 

I will have but little to say about his life and public services, 
because they have been dwelt upon in the eloquent speeches of 
the honored Senators from Missouri just pronounced in the 
Senate, 

No man ever dominated a political party more than Mr. 
Bentox did the Democratic party of the State of Missouri 
from 1S20 to 1S50. His hold was so great on the Democrats 
of that State during this period that he hardly asked to be 
reelected to his high office — his party thrust his election upon 
him. Once in two or three years he made what might be 
called Benton's triumphal progress through the .State, and 
told the multitudes who came out to greet him and hear him 
speak what "I, Thomas H. Benton," had done as their 
public ser\-ant in the Senate of the United States for the 
State of Missouri and the whole country. 

Benton's greatest weakness was his vanity and egotism, .so 
seldom united with genuine ability and merit. But in Benton 
this weakness was pardonable and forgotten, because it laid 
alongside so much merit and virtue, such great integrity, loy- 
alty, and unselfish devotion to his country and its best interests. 
Listening to his speeches on the hustings and remembering 
the great services he had rendered his State and the couutry, 



136 Address of Mr. Elkins on the Acecptaiice of Ihe 

people forgot his vanity, although he constantly referred to 
himself and wliat he had accomplished. In his "Thirty Years' 
\'ie\v" — the best political history of that period ever written — 
he never fails to make mention of what Mr. Bextox did and 
give him the fullest credit. 

He was not the equal of Clay as an orator, nor of Webster as 
a constitutional lawyer, but he was greater than either in being 
a many-sided statesman, in miderstanding tiie wants and needs 
of the whole country, especially thase of the West. No .states- 
man during his time or .since has had as clear a conception of 
the possibilities of the great We.st beyond the Missi.ssippi River, 
and especialh- that part which came to us by the treaty of 
Guadalupe-Hidalgo, as Bextox. It is a historic fact that 
Webster denounced as worthless the vast territory that came 
to us through this treaty. He said it never would be useful, 
could not sustain population, and would be a 1nn-deu to the 
General Go\-ernment: while Bkxtox foresaw and foretold in 
the most accurate way its future. Webster's \-ision did not 
extend much beyond the Mississippi; he could not .see as far as 
the shores of the Pacific. 

Bextox not only .saw the Pacific, ad\-()cated a Pacific rail- 
road, and said it would be Ijuilt one day, but he .saw with an 
unerring eye the road to the Orient, the commerce of the Pacific 
and our trade with Asia, which is just beginning. The mighty 
events that are so rapidly crowding upon us are verifying his 
prophecies as to the po.ssibilities of trade and commerce with 
the i.slands of the Pacific and the Orient. No American states- 
man ever advocated and propo.sed .so many public measures 
that were beneficial and affected the welfare and destiny of the 
whole country as Bextox. 

He was the best-informed man of his time on questions grow- 
ing out of the pul.ilic lands, Indian affairs, and mines. This 



Statues of Thomas H. Bcuton am/ Pram is P. Blair. 137 

was not altogether cUie to his abihty ami perseverint; industry, 
hut he enjoyed the advantage over other statesmen of living 
beyond the Mississippi and learned lessons of wisdom from the 
trappers, miners, and pathfinders of the Rocky Mountains who 
made frequent visits to vSt. Louis from the West as far as 
Oregon. He was acquainted with all these daring and adven- 
titrous spirits, among them the Astors, who told him of the 
Wealth of the Rocky Mountains and the climate and soil of the 
Pacific coast, now occupied by prosperous States. He not only 
understood the West, Ijiit favored all measures looking to its 
development. 

Twenty j'ears after Benton's prophecy that a Pacifi'" rail- 
road would be built across the continent uniting the two oceans, 
even General Sherman doubted that it would ever be accom- 
plished, and, with all his knowledge of the West, .said a Pacific 
railroad was impracticable. 

Though a Southern man, Benton persi.stently opposed the 
extension of slavery into the Territories, and in the early talks 
about secession and the nnitterings of discontent on the part of 
slaveholders and ntdlifiers and threats of the dissolution of the 
Union, Benton stood like a stone wall against all these evil 
and pernicious things. 

He was the last link between the makers of the Constitution 
and the present era; he reached from JefTer.son to Sumner. 
An incessant worker, tireless and persistent, he never gave up 
a purpose when adopted after mature consideration. He was 
so sensitive in the discharge of his public duties that he would 
not appoint a relative to ofiice, no matter how great his merit 
and qualifications. 

When elected to the Senate he was the leading lawyer of St. 
Louis, and engaged in the heaviest litigation in the State, 
notably that growing out of the public lands and grants of laud 
S. Doc. 456 10 



138 Address 0/ Mr. E/kiiis on tJtc Acceptance of the 

made hy France, which was the most important and paid the 
best fees. After his election to the Senate he called his clients 
together and gave np all his land cases, stating that their 
interests might conflict with those of the General Government 
and his duty as a Senator. He did this when to have con- 
tinned as attorney would have made him a rich man for those 
times. He not only gave up the.se cases, but refused to name 
any lawyer to take charge of them. 

Benton .stood for .sound money and the faithful performance 
of all national obligations. He favored a liberal distribution 
of the public lands and .selling them to actual settlers at a very 
low price. Although this policy was strongly opposed by the 
Ea.stern States, yet after a struggle covering many years he 
.secured its adoption. He was the author of the preemption 
system. 

When he was the leader of the Jacksonian Democrats in the 
vSenate he oppo.sed the spoils sy.stem and favored the merit 
system. 

As a Senator Benton never could be swerved from his 
public duty as he understood it. He lived up to his convic- 
tions and voted according to the lights liefore him and his best 
judgment, without regard to the con.seiinences to himself. 
With him personal appeals against duty fell upon deaf ears. 
His patriotism was as broad as the I'nion and knew no .section. 
While he stood for the whole country, he always supported and 
defended the West and Western interests. Better than any 
statesman of his time he understood the grandeur, power, and 
glory of the great Republic, its possibilities, certain progress, 
growth, and expansion in trade and commerce. 

He mastered nearly all the economical and political problems 
that affected in any way the Union and the whole country. 
He had but little regard for foreign things and foreign coun- 
tries, and ignored their claims evervwhere and w]iene\'er in 



Siahies of Thomas H. Bentoji and Francis P. Blair. 1 39 

conflict with those of the I'nited States. Especially was he 
opposed to the pretensions and claims of Great Britain, and 
constantly fought British influence on this continent. His 
Americanism was intense, and his love of the Union, with its 
manifold blessings and splendid future, .so clear to his vision, 
was his grand passion. 

In a service in the Senate of thirty years, covering mo.st 
exciting times, his integrity was never questioned. Honesty of 
purpose characterized all of his official acts. He was .satisfied 
to be a Senator of the United States and never tried to be 
President. He knew that many leading statesmen had been 
dwarfed and enfeebled by pandering to popular favor to reach 
the Presidency. This dementia never reached Bextox; there- 
fore he was always able to act up to his convictions and follow 
his best judgment on all public questions. His public life and 
.services, his rectitude and singleness of purpose, his unselfish- 
ness, as well as his perseverance and industry, furiush au 
example and pattern worthy of imitation. Taking Bextox all 
in all during his thirty years' .service in the Senate, he was the 
most important factor in the general legislation of the country. 

It is a remarkable fact, alike honorable and creditable to the 
intelligence and fairness of the people of Missouri, that, though 
a .slave-holding State and favoring strongly the cause of the 
South in the civil war, its legislature should have voted that 
Bentox and Bl.vir, with their splendid records and achieve- 
ments in favor of the Union and against secession and the 
extension of slaver}-, were of all other statesmen most de.serv- 
ing to have a place ui the Hall of great and famous men in the 
nation's Capitol. 



140 Statues of Thomas H. Bejiton and Francis P. Blair. 

GEN. FRANCIS P. BI.AIR 

Was both a soldier aud a statesman; his name and fame sheds 
hister on the historj' of Missouri. His ser\'ices in behalf of the 
Union can never be forgotten. Througli his ability and prompt 
action as an officer of the Army the first year of the war Mis- 
soviri was .saved to Federal control and authority dtiring the 
entire war. 

For his splendid services in liehalf of his State and country, 
both in peace and war, he deserves a place In' the side of 
Benton. 

Mr. CoCKRELi.. Mr. President, I move the adoption of the 
concurrent resolution of the House of Representatives. 

The President pro tempore. The question is on agreeing 
to the concurrent resolution of the Hou.se of Representatives. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 

o 



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